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An analysis of the achievement gap of discontinued reading recovery students: A longitudinal study of reading recovery students
Abstract
Closing the achievement gap among the nation's students is a major concern for many school districts across America. The achievement scores for minority and low income students are not keeping pace with those scores of white, middle/upper-class students. In hopes of reversing this trend many schools have implemented early literacy intervention programs. Reading Recovery (RR) advocates have stated that many RR students catch up to their grade level peers in reading, and do not need further reading interventions (Reading Recovery Council of North America, 2000). However, the research is not clear whether RR sustains reading progress over time, at the same success rate for all groups of students. The purpose of this quantitative, causal-comparative study was to examine the sustained literacy achievement of discontinued Reading Recovery students. This study analyzed data to determine if there was a significant difference in the 5th grade Total Reading scores between discontinued Reading Recovery students with and without specific at-risk characteristics (ethnicity and low-income). This study also followed the 1998-99 cohort of discontinued Reading Recovery students and analyzed their third, fifth and seventh grade MAT total reading scores to determine if there was an interaction between reading scores over time (3rd, 5th and 7th grade scores) and selected at-risk characteristics (ethnicity and low-income). Descriptive and inferential statistics (ANOVA) revealed the following findings: (1) There was a significant difference in mean Total Reading scores of the 2000-01 RR students at 5th grade among white and minority students, (2) There was a significant increase of mean Total Reading scores from 3rd to 5th grade, and 3 rd to 7th grade, for the 1998-99 discontinued RR students. Ethnicity and income did not have an interaction in this achievement pattern---the trajectory was the same for each of the groups. (3) White, non-low income students had significantly higher mean total reading scores than students who had one and/or two risk factors.
Subject Area
Educational administration
Recommended Citation
Potter, Wendy, "An analysis of the achievement gap of discontinued reading recovery students: A longitudinal study of reading recovery students" (2007). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI3258776.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI3258776