Date
4-2020
Department
School of Education
Degree
Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership (EdD)
Chair
Meredith Park
Keywords
Reading, Intervention, Classworks, RTI, Tier II, NWEA
Disciplines
Education | Educational Methods
Recommended Citation
Small, Tammy Kamerik, "Causal-Comparative Study of the Effects of Classworks as a Tier II Intervention on Middle School Struggling Readers" (2020). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 2386.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/2386
Abstract
The purpose of this causal-comparative study was to investigate the effects of ClassworksTM as a Tier II intervention on middle school struggling readers as part of a Response to Intervention system. This study sought to determine whether the ClassworksTM intervention administered in a small group twice per week during a supplemental reading class would improve reading skills as measured by the MAP Growth Test after 12 weeks. Two groups of students (Grades 6–8) from four middle schools in a suburban, South Carolina school district were used in the study. Archival data were analyzed with a Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) to determine the impact of the independent variable, the ClassworksTM intervention program, on the dependent variables. The dependent variables were the overall reading Rasch Unit (RIT) scores, RIT scores in the area of literary text: meaning and context, scores in the area informational text: meaning and context, and scores in the field of vocabulary as measured by the MAP Growth Test designed by Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA). Results showed a statistically significant difference between the treatment group and the comparison group for reading. Findings caused the rejection of the null hypotheses for the areas of overall reading, informational text: meaning and context, and vocabulary. No statistically significant difference was found between groups for literary text: meaning and context, which led to an acceptance of the null hypothesis that stated there would be no statistically significant difference between the treatment and comparison groups in MAP Growth Reading RIT scores in the area. The study implicated that ClassworksTM could be effective as a small group, Tier II reading intervention for middle school struggling readers.
