Abstract
This research aimed to increase the reading achievement of sixth-grade special education students receiving interventions in a resource setting. This problem of practice was created in response to the theory of change made by a Network Improvement Community (NIC) rooted in the lack of professional development offered by the school district for special education teachers in teaching students foundational reading skills. The research questions used for this study this evaluation were 1) What percent of students made progress in each reporting category (word study, grammar, and comprehension) in the Lexia PowerUp literacy program? 2) To what extent did the teachers feel they implemented the Lexia PowerUp literacy program with fidelity? 3) To what extent did the implementation of Lexia PowerUp literacy increase student performance on the STAAR test? Specifically, what was the percentage increase for approaches and meets grade level? This research project also applied improvement science principles and mixed methods using an embedded experimental design. Throughout this research project, the researcher implemented interventions and evaluated outcomes as part of a plan-do-study-act (PDSA) inquiry cycle. The PDSA cycle was conducted in two phases with pre- and post-measures in addition to collecting quantitative and qualitative data. The quantitative data was collected through progress measures in each strand of instruction in the Lexia PowerUp literacy program for each campus and by reviewing the sixth grade State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR) data in the areas of approaches, meets, and percent of students who made progress on the reading assessment. Qualitative data was collected by administering a teacher survey to determine the fidelity of implementing the intervention program. Findings indicated that students made progress in all three areas of the intervention program, and there was overall incremental growth on the STAAR reading assessment. Teachers self-reported implementation with fidelity, but there were minimal responses to the survey. Additionally, the school district limited the researcher in accessing available data.
Date of publication
7-2023
Document Type
Dissertation
Language
english
Persistent identifier
http://hdl.handle.net/10950/4267
Recommended Citation
Stone, Kathryn, "IMPROVING OUTCOMES FOR OLDER STRUGGLING READERS IN SPECIAL EDUCATION RESOURCE" (2023). Education Theses and Dissertations. Paper 8.
http://hdl.handle.net/10950/4267