Since reading
interventions began at Greenfarm Middle School five years ago, Greenfarm has
cycled through multiple intervention tools and levels of implementation. My study provided the school with data that
shows daily reading intervention is effective for tier 2 and tier 3 readers. The survey and interview data shows that the
staff has a range of comfort levels and beliefs as to the freedom teachers
should have in choosing the intervention tools to use. The teachers all agree that reading
intervention is important, this is a common ground that can be used to launch
conversations on the next steps at Greenfarm Middle School. The student achievement data of Group A
versus Group B will serve as a powerful tool to obtain teacher buy-in to the
importance of reading intervention.
Had I had the
opportunity to do the study again, I would expand my research to areas that
were not readily available during the school’s summer break. In addition to analyzing student reading
growth through the school’s vendor assessment, AIMSweb, I would also analyze students’
scores on the state assessment, the Ohio Achievement Assessment (OAA). Analyzing both sources of achievement data
would provide a stronger indication of the success the interventions give in
the regular education curriculum.
I would also
spend time observing students participating in the school’s current
intervention programs and seek insight from students on their opinions of the
interventions. Understanding why
students like or dislike a program designed to help them will also help in
addressing any changes that need to be made to the program.
While I was
able to collect data through staff surveys and staff interviews, had the
research taken place during the school year I would have been able to obtain
more survey responses. I would also have
tried to schedule an interview with teachers who currently oppose the reading
intervention program. Understanding why
educational professionals do not agree with the current program will also
provide necessary insight needed to make changes to the program that will encourage
all staff members to participate.
Reading
intervention at Greenfarm Middle School will benefit from future research. To expand on the research included in this
article, I would review the OAA data to link the AIMSweb data to the OAA data
for possible trends. I would also obtain
interviews with staff members currently not participating in reading
intervention. The data collected in
these interviews would provide insight on how to obtain staff buy-in.
