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ABSTRACT Dale Buie, PROGRAM EVALUATION of READING PLUS ABSTRACT Dale Buie, PROGRAM EVALUATION OF READING PLUS: STUDY OF THE IMPACT ON READING ACHIEVEMENT AT THE SCHOOL LEVEL IN MOORE COUNTY SCHOOLS (Under the direction of Dr. James McDowelle) Department of Educational Leadership, November, 2014. At the request of the Moore County School district’s superintendent a program evaluation was conducted on Reading Plus. Reading Plus is a reading intervention program that places an emphasis on the connection between eye-movements and reading skills that is in use in the school district. The program evaluation focused on the use of Reading Plus at Cameron Elementary School. A full evaluation was conducted using Daniel Stufflebeam’s Context, Input, Process, Product (CIPP) model. The purpose of the program evaluation was to determine whether or not the Reading Plus program impacted student academic achievement in reading for those students enrolled in the program in grades four and five based on the student Lexile scores generated from the Scholastic Reading Inventory (SRI). Reading Plus was found to be an effective intervention program and cost effective for the school which was evaluated. PROGRAM EVALUATION OF READING PLUS: STUDY OF THE IMPACT ON READING ACHIEVEMENT AT THE SCHOOL LEVEL IN MOORE COUNTY SCHOOLS A Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of the Department of Educational Leadership East Carolina University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Education by Dale Buie November, 2014 © Copyright 2014 Dale Buie Chapters 1-3 were written in cooperation with my colleagues: Joel County, Robin Calcutt, and Emilie Simeon PROGRAM EVALUATION OF READING PLUS: STUDY OF THE IMPACT ON READING ACHIEVEMENT AT THE SCHOOL LEVEL IN MOORE COUNTY SCHOOLS by Dale Buie APPROVED BY: DIRECTOR OF DISSERTATION:_________________________________________________ James McDowelle COMMITTEE MEMBER:________________________________________________________ William Rouse, Jr. COMMITTEE MEMBER:________________________________________________________ William Grobe COMMITTEE MEMBER:________________________________________________________ Charles Jenkins CHAIR OF THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP: _________________________________________________________ William Rouse, Jr. DEAN OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL: _________________________________________________________ Paul Gemperline TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................. vii LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................... viii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................... 1 Explication of Problem of Practice ............................................................................ 1 History of Problem ..................................................................................................... 4 Statement of Problem of Practice .............................................................................. 10 Research Questions and Methodology....................................................................... 12 Definitions.................................................................................................................. 15 CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF LITERATURE ......................................................................... 18 History of Reading Instruction................................................................................... 19 Types of Readers: Meaning, Sound, and deaf mute Methodology ............................ 19 The Reading Wars...................................................................................................... 21 Why Johnny Can’t Read ............................................................................................ 24 Eye-movement Research and a Relationship to Reading .......................................... 25 National Emphasis on Reading .................................................................................. 29 National Reading Accountability ............................................................................... 31 Foundational Reading Instructional Methods ............................................................ 32 Phonemic Awareness ..................................................................................... 33 Phonics Instruction......................................................................................... 33 Fluency ........................................................................................................... 34 Vocabulary ..................................................................................................... 35 Comprehension .............................................................................................. 36 Individualized Reading Instruction ............................................................................ 36 History of the Reading Plus Program ........................................................................ 38 Reading Plus Program Instructional Methods ........................................................... 39 Current Reading Initiatives ........................................................................................ 42 Assessing Reading ..................................................................................................... 44 Motivating Readers .................................................................................................... 47 The Challenge for Older Readers .............................................................................. 49 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY ......................................................................................... 52 Research Purpose ....................................................................................................... 52 Statement of Problem of Practice .............................................................................. 54 Design of Study.......................................................................................................... 57 CIPP Product Evaluation ........................................................................................... 59 Research Setting......................................................................................................... 61 Study Participants ...................................................................................................... 62 School Demographics ................................................................................................ 66 Data Collection .......................................................................................................... 68 Data Analysis ............................................................................................................. 71 Cost Benefit Analysis ................................................................................................ 72 Summary .................................................................................................................... 72 CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATIONS BASED UPON LITERATURE REVIEW, DATA COLLECTION, AND ANALYSIS ....................................................................................... 73 Delineating ................................................................................................................. 74 Obtaining.................................................................................................................... 78 Comprehension .............................................................................................. 83 Fluency ........................................................................................................... 85 Vocabulary ..................................................................................................... 86 Phonemic Awareness ..................................................................................... 87 Phonics ........................................................................................................... 87 Reading Stamina ............................................................................................ 88 Providing .................................................................................................................... 88 Effective Implementation............................................................................... 88 Unexpected Outcomes ................................................................................... 94 Cost Benefit ................................................................................................... 96 Recommendations………………………………………………………………….. 97 Summary .................................................................................................................... 98 REFERENCES ...................................................................................................................... 101 APPENDIX A: CONTEXT-INPUT-PROCESS-PRODUCT (CIPP) DECISION MODEL……………………………………………………………………………………. 121 APPENDIX B: PROGRAM EVALUATION CYCLE ......................................................... 122 APPENDIX C: CIPP RELATIONSHIP OF EVALUATION TO DECISION-MAKING… 123 APPENDIX D: SUPERINTENDENT’S REQUEST FOR PROGRAM EVALUTION…. 124 APPENDIX E: TEACHER SURVEY QUESTIONS ........................................................... 125 APPENDIX F: INSTITUTIONAL REVIEW BOARD APPROVAL LETTER .................. 127 LIST
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