Date of Award

2021

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Philosophy (Ph.D)

Department

Education Specialties

First Advisor

Michael Sampson

Second Advisor

Kyle Cook

Third Advisor

Evan Ortlieb

Abstract

The increasing number of children who struggle with reading and writing has become a significant challenge for the nation’s public schools. The purpose of this quantitative study was to explore the relationship between which intervention a student gets and ELA scores of the online reading program i-Ready compared to the Word Generation program in regards to the reading and writing levels of New York City middle school students. The researcher compared New York City state test scores to determine how student reading levels measured with the i-Ready program vs the Word Generation program. This showed which program had a greater effect on reading and writing levels of middle school students. The researcher also measured the relationship of each intervention individually on general education students, students with disabilities, and English language learners. Participants were based on quota sampling. This was a secondary data analysis of existing publicly available data. The researcher accessed school and grade level data that was listed on a public NYC website. This data was gathered as a part of regular assessment and data collection by the state. The researcher requested the standard deviation of the scale scores from the RPSG research department. Participants were a sample of 1324 students, in a middle school in New York, over 2 school years. Participants also had different tiered levels such as ELL, special education and general education. The results showed that there is no statistically significant difference between ELA test scores on the NYS Common Core Exam for students who received the i-Ready intervention in 7th Grade and/or Word Generation intervention in 8th Grade. The results also showed that there was a statistically significant difference in measurements across subgroups of student groups (GenEd, SWD, ELL) and interventions received (I-Ready, Word Generation, No Intervention). Future research should explore individual student level data. Recommendations for educators are discussed.

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