Date of Award

Summer 8-2008

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Educational Leadership and Research

Committee Chair

Michael Ward

Committee Chair Department

Educational Leadership and School Counseling

Committee Member 2

Gaylynn Parker

Committee Member 3

Portia Hull

Committee Member 4

Mary Nell McNeese

Abstract

This study examined the factors that are associated with students' standardized reading achievement scores. The participants in this study were obtained from two sources: a national and a regional sample. The national participants were located throughout the United States of America, and the regional participants were from a school district in a southeastern state.

The data for the national sample were provided by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a division of the U.S. Department of Education, and the regional sample was provided by surveying all fifth grade teachers in a school district from a southeastern state. These two samples were analyzed within the context of the research hypotheses. The researcher used the ECLS-K's Public Use Data File and Electronic Codebook to request SPSS syntax for the variables used in the study. Composite variables were then created by summing the variables that represented classroom instructional activities, classroom resources, teachers' evaluations of their students, teachers' evaluations of school/staff activities, teachers' views on school climate/environment, teachers' background (education and teaching assignment), teachers' gender, and teachers' race in order to measure the factors that are associated with students' standardized reading achievement scores. A multiple linear regression was conducted that showed the linear combination of predictors' significantly predicted reading scores, F(6, 1044) = 45.14,/? < .001. Based on standardized beta coefficients, classroom instructional activities composite variable was the strongest while teachers' views on school/staff activities composite variable was the weakest. The squared multiple correlation coefficient, R2.03, was statistically significant f{6, 1044) = 45.14,/? < .001. This indicated that 3% of the variance was accounted for by those variables. Lastly, an independent samples t test was conducted and proved to not be significant, ?(1.10) = 41.09,/? = .28; the results were counter to the research hypothesis: the national sample (M = 74.92, SD = 11.46) and the regional sample (M= 78.67, SD = 22.11). The equality of variance assumption was violated. However, it was noted that there was a numerical difference in the means but not a statistically significant difference. The contents of this dissertation further explain the results, and suggestions for future research are presented as well.

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