THE EFFECTS OF AN INTERVENTION PROGRAM (VOYAGER) THROUGH RESPONSE TO INTERVENTION FRAMEWORK ON 4TH GRADE READING ACHIEVEMENT By Lisa Carol Harris Liberty University A Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Education Liberty University June, 2016 2 THE EFFFECTS OF INTERVENTION PROGRAM (VOYAGER) THROUGH RESPONSE TO INTERVENTION FRAMEWORK ON 4TH GRADE READING ACHIEVEMENT By Lisa Carol Harris A Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Education Liberty University, Lynchburg, VA June, 2016 Approved By: Dr. Deanna Keith, Committee Chair Dr. John Bartlett, Committee Member Dr. Jason Wright, Committee Member 3 ABSTRACT The ability to read fluently has been confirmed as an indicator of good comprehension and thus academic success. Studies have shown that most students in the U.S. are reading below their grade levels. The U.S. has demanded continuously that the education system increase the outcomes of education for all children. In order to improve children’s reading educational needs, effective screening, assessments, and intervention tools need to be implemented properly in U.S. school curriculums. The purpose of this nonequivalent control group study is to investigate the effectiveness of an intervention program in improving the oral reading fluency rates of fourth graders administered using STEEP (Screening to Enhance Educational Performance) procedures in a Response to Intervention structure. The selected participants for this study were 62 fourth- grade students who were receiving Tier II and II reading intervention through the fluency-based reading intervention program. The researcher used an Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) to analyze data to determine if the treatment group had achieved significant improvement in their oral reading fluency rates as compared to the control group, while considering the pre-test scores of the students as the covariate. After adjusting for the effect of pre-test scores on reading achievement, the scores from the treatment group were significantly higher than those in the control group after receiving intervention. After adjusting for the effect of pre-test scores on oral reading fluency, the scores from the treatment group were significantly higher than those in the control group after receiving treatment. Keywords: STEEP (screening to enhance educational performance), reading intervention program, national reading panel, response to intervention (RTI), social development theory, social learning theory, reading comprehension. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………………………………3 List of Tables……………………………………………………………………………………...7 CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................. 7 Background ................................................................................................................................. 8 Problem Statement .................................................................................................................... 11 Purpose Statement ..................................................................................................................... 12 Significance of the Study .......................................................................................................... 14 Research Questions(s) ............................................................................................................... 15 Null Hypotheses ........................................................................................................................ 16 Definitions ................................................................................................................................. 16 Research Summary .................................................................................................................... 17 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW ……………………………………………………18 Introduction…………………………….......................……………………………………….19 Theoretical Framework ............................................................................................................. 22 Literature Framework Section ................................................................................................... 26 CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................. 49 Design........................................................................................................................................ 49 Research Questions ................................................................................................................... 51 Null Hypotheses ........................................................................................................................ 51 Participants and Setting ............................................................................................................. 52 Instrumentation.......................................................................................................................... 54 Procedures ................................................................................................................................. 56 5 Data Analysis ............................................................................................................................ 60 CHAPTER FOUR: FINDINGS………………………………………………………………….62 Research Questions(s)……………………………………………………………………….62 Hypothesis (es)………………………………………………………………………………62 Descriptive Statistics………………………………………………………………………..63 Results………………………………………………………………………………………65 CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSIONS, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS……….70 Overview……………………………………………………………………………………70 Summary of Findings……………………………………………………………………….71 Discussion………………………………………………………………………………….72 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………….74 Implications…………………………………………………………………………………75 Limitations………………………………………………………………………………….80 Recommendations for Future Research…………………………………………………….81 Summary……………………………………………………………………………………84 REFERENCES…………………………………………………………………………………..86 APPENDIX A.…………………………………………………………………………………104 APPENDIX B………………………………………………………………………………….105 APPENDIX C…………………………………………………………………………………106 APPENDIX D………………………………………………………………………………….107 APPENDIX E…………………………………………………………………………………..108 6 List of Tables Table 1. Summary Statistics for the Maze Pre-test Scores (N=61) .............................................. 64 Table 2. Summary Statistics for Maze Post-test Scores (N=61)…………………………………64 Table 3. Summary Statistics for Oral Reading Fluency Pre-test Scores (N=62) .......................... 64 Table 4. Summary Statistics for Oral Reading Fluency Post-test Scores (N=62) ........................ 65 Table 5. Levene’s Test of Equality of Error Variances for Reading Achievement Scores (N=62. ....................................................................................................................................................... 66 Table 6 Shapiro-Wilk for Normality on Standardized Residual for Reading Achievement Scores……………………………………………………………………………………………67 Table 7. Descriptive Statistics for the Adjusted Means for the Study Variables for Reading Achievement ................................................................................................................................. 67 Table 8. Summary of the ANCOVA Results on the Study Variables for Reading Achievement 67 Table 9. Levene’s Test for Equality of Variances on the Study Variables for Oral Reading 8Fluency ........................................................................................................................................ 68 Table 10. Shapiro-Wilk Test for Normality on Standardized Residuals for Oral Reading Fluency Scores ............................................................................................................................................ 69 Table 11. Descriptive Statistics for the Adjusted Means of Oral Fluency Scores ........................ 69 Table 12. Summary Results of the ANCOVA for Oral Reading Fluency Scores ........................ 69 7 CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION Background Competent reading skills are fundamental to academic success, and are important skills in day-to-day life. High levels of literacy are necessary to excel in all academic subjects. Central to high literacy levels is the ability to read fluently and naturally (Griffiths & Stuart, 2013). One of the biggest transitions in individual development is the child’s entry into formal education and initiation into formal learning of reading and writing. Millions of children worldwide each year begin their primary education, and only 2 years later, many of these students experience difficulties regarding their progress in the process of reading and writing (Christopher, Hulslander, Byrne, Samuelsson, Keenan, Pennington & Olson,2013). In the specific case of Latin American, Levy and Schady (2013) noted that one out of every three children was already behind when they started formal schooling. Many of these children did not have any pre-school, and many teachers who worked with these children were not prepared to deal with the children’s specific problems, which resulted in inadequate learning and repetition. Brown (2013) added that for school failure in the fourth grade, failing involved students not acquiring the basics of literacy. According to the National Reading Panel, oral reading fluency consists of one of the most fundamental