Date of Award
4-1-2019
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctorate of Education, Ed.D.
College
College of Education
Department
Education
First Advisor
Rinyka Allison, Ph.D.
Second Advisor
John Mendes, Ed.D.
Third Advisor
Clayton Alford, Ed.D.
Abstract
Reading is one of the basic and necessary skills for success in life. When an individual cannot read, it will limit the individual’s opportunities to grow, produce, and thrive. The researcher explored three factors relative to reading: the effects a supplemental reading program, Extended Reading Time (ERT), had on third-grade students with diverse reading needs, the reading improvement of third-grade students who did not receive ERT services, and to what extent will third-grade teachers effectively utilize ERT to meet the needs of their students best. The researcher used archival data from two Title I elementary schools; one received ERT services, and the other did not receive the services. There were four comparative analyses conducted on quantitative data. Statistically significant differences were found in the pretest and posttest reading scores of third-grade students who received ERT services (F (1, 336) = 8.79, p = .003, η2 = 12.19). Also, there were no statistically significant differences found in the pretest and posttest reading scores of third-grade students who did not receive ERT services. These findings suggested that ERT services may have helped the non-ERT third-grade students achieve higher reading scores on their posttest. Limitations included the characteristics of Title I third-grade students, characteristics of Title I schools, and third-grade teachers’ pedagogical effectiveness. Some of these characteristics were no in-home education between the ages of 0 to 4 years old, as parents possessed limited formal education, and little to no connection between parents and their children’s school(s). These limitations may have caused the results to be unique and restricted their abilities to be generalized to different populations, as the results could be only applicable to other similar Title I populations.