This study contains
both quantitative data and qualitative data.
The first method used was a survey.
The survey was developed using Google Docs Form. The survey was developed consisting of 6
questions using a continuous scale of 1-5, Strongly Disagree- Strongly Agree
for quantitative data, 2 open ended questions for qualitative data, and 1
demographic question regarding years as an educator. The survey was designed to take no longer
than 5 minutes to complete. The data was
recorded anonymously through a Google Docs spreadsheet. Four of the nine middle
school educators contacted completed the survey. The survey was designed to assess the
educators’ view of the importance of reading intervention in middle school, comfort
level with implementing reading interventions, their opinions regarding having
one set intervention system or the freedom to choose between multiple
intervention approaches. The survey also
asked the educators to state what they thought were strengths and weaknesses of
the current reading intervention system.
The second method of
data collection used in this study was analyzing existing achievement data from
the 2012-2013 school year using AIMSweb reading fluency CBM scores and MAZE
comprehension scores. The data analyzed
was gathered from seventh grade students identified as tier 2 and tier 3
readers based on fall benchmarking scores.
The group of 37 students studied was a combination of students that
received consistent daily reading intervention and a group of students that did
not receive consistent daily reading intervention.
The
third method of data collection used in this study was teacher interviews. Two teachers were interviewed that have
background in implementing reading interventions. One teacher is a special education teacher
and the other is an English-Language Arts teacher. The following questions were asked to the
interviewees: 1. Why do you feel it is critical to have a reading intervention
program in place for middle school students?
2. Do you feel our school
currently has an effective reading intervention program? If so, what
evidence shows it is effective? If no, what steps do you feel would be
beneficial to develop a more effective program?
3. How many years have you
participated in reading intervention as a teacher? 4.
What is your background in reading intervention? 5.
Have your views on reading intervention changed as you have become more
involved with reading intervention?
6. What do you feel is the largest
obstacle we face in regards to reading interventions in the middle school?
How can this obstacle be overcome? The interviews took
approximately 30 minutes to complete.
One interview was conducted face-to-face the week of July 8, 2013
meeting at the school with the Special Education Department Chair. The other interview was a phone interview
with a seventh grade English Language Arts teacher. The data was recorded by scribing the
responses of the teachers. The survey
was designed to gain further insight on other staff members’ views of the
importance of reading intervention and how we can work to improve our current
reading intervention system to be more effective for all students.
