PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2004, Education : School Psychology

Learning to read is at the heart of the United States' guaranteed free and appropriate public education. The standard-based educational reform movement prescribes high standards for student performance, assessment tools to measure performance against these standards, opportunities for schools to change curricula and instruction, and accountability for student outcomes. Ohio has responded to the standards-based reform movement by implementing accountability systems centered on summative statewide assessments. These summative systems are appropriate for demonstrating global reading performance, but formative assessment tools are needed to make decisions about individual students' reading skills. Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) are formative tools used to measure pre-reading skills. This study examined the relationships among three of the DIBELS measures, and among DIBELS, student placement in their reading curricula (Reading Mastery), and student performance on the Ohio Off-Grade Proficiency reading test (OOPT-2). DIBELS measures included: phoneme segmentation fluency (PSF), nonsense word fluency (NWF) and oral reading fluency (ORF). Approximately 110 first grade students and 14 teachers from a Midwestern urban school district were participants in the study. Students' fall, winter, and spring DIBELS scores, their scores on the OOPT-2 reading test, and their fall, winter, and spring placements in the Reading Mastery curricula were utilized for analysis. Across the school year, students demonstrated an increase in their performance on NWF and ORF, but their PSF performance remained stable. Both NWF and ORF were well correlated with the OOPT-2, with ORF being the best predictor of students' proficiency on the OOPT-2. Students who reached recommended year end levels in both NWF and ORF were rated as proficient on the OOPT-2 at a higher than 70% rate. Nearly all students considered deficit by the two DIBELS measures were rated as non-proficient o (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Dr. Francis Lentz (Advisor) Subjects:

Master of Arts, Wittenberg University, 2021, Education

The following study examined how using explicit vocabulary instruction during read alouds can impact the listening comprehension of first-grade students. The participants in this study consisted of 12 first grade students from a large public district in Central Ohio during the 2020-2021 school year. The study lasted for six weeks and used a single group interrupted time series design. I used descriptive and inferential statistics to determine if students made growth in their comprehension scores when they were provided with explicit vocabulary instruction compared to when they received no vocabulary instruction. Results from this study indicate that students have a higher comprehension during read alouds when they are provided with explicit vocabulary instruction compared to when they were provided no vocabulary instruction.

Committee: Amy McGuffey (Advisor); Missy McCoy (Committee Member); Brian Yontz (Committee Member); Kristin Farley (Committee Chair) Subjects: Education; Elementary Education

Doctor of Education (EdD), Ohio University, 2018, Educational Administration (Education)

The purpose of this study was to explore practices from the Reading First Grant implementation, which itself no longer exists, with an intent of identifying those practices that have continued to be utilized through the Response to Intervention process and the practices that have changed in the interim. This research reports the results of an instrumental multi-case study design involving three former high performing Reading First elementary schools that have continued to be successful through Response to Intervention (RtI) as a school framework. A mixed methodology approach incorporating semi-structured interviews, quantitative survey results, and state assessment data were triangulated and analyzed in an attempt to answer by what methods these former high performing Reading First schools have continued to be successful through RtI as a school framework, as well as what leadership practices and current professional development practices have impacted the RtI process. The results of this study may allow others in education and in related disciplines to benefit by learning about practices that have and have not been used effectively in the Reading First implementation and Response to Intervention process. The results of this study may also contribute to the relevant literature regarding leadership practices, which can influence student achievement.

Committee: William Larson (Committee Chair); Sara Helfrich (Committee Co-Chair) Subjects: Education; Education Policy; Educational Leadership; Elementary Education

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2017, Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services: School Psychology

Reading comprehension is highly complex task that demands the simultaneous integration of decoding and semantic processing in order to construct meaning from the text. A major obstacle for English language learners in the comprehension of academic texts is that informational texts often include omissions of important information that is assumed to be understood by the reader. To address this issue, this study investigated the utility of a culturally adaptive intervention package called Preview-Review in order to enhance the reading fluency, comprehension level, and reading comprehension rate of ELLs in an ongoing Repeated Readings intervention. This study employed an alternating treatment design with baseline for three English language learners in an urban midwestern middle school. Participants were provided with scripted bilingual preview of conceptual and contextual information relating to the topic, and explicit instruction of passage vocabulary using cognates, multiple exemplars, and reinforcement. The effects of both repeated readings with preview-review were measured on oral reading fluency, reading comprehension score, and reading comprehension rate. Results indicated that the repeated readings with preview-review was superior to the repeated readings stand-alone condition across all target variables. All students showed growth in generalized reading performance on novel passages by the end of the intervention.

Committee: Julie Morrison Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Renee Hawkins Ph.D. (Committee Member); Liliana Rojas-Guyler Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Reading Instruction

EdD, University of Cincinnati, 2007, Education : Urban Educational Leadership

Over the last twenty years there has been increased interest in facilitating and sustaining change in the education. The bulk of past research has focused on systems change with little insight into the role of individual educators as change agents. The purpose of this study was to examine the role individual teachers play in creating and sustaining change in a large Midwestern urban school district. This study focused on how teachers in a system that was made turbulent by both the neighborhood environment it existed in and the ever changing environment of the large urban district it was a part of. Multiple noteworthy studies have been completed to identify the characteristics and qualities of successful change initiatives. More recently researchers have begun to turn their attention to the human elements of change that occur within systems change. These studies have revealed the importance of collaboration, professional development, available resources, and systems supports to facilitate teachers in change. However, further knowledge is needed to understand how individuals build capacity for change and what the causal factors are that drive teachers to sustain their new practices. In addition, there is a need to discover when it is that teachers begin to plan for sustaining change. The research sought the answer to one question. How do teachers sustain change in turbulent times? The study design was qualitative and involved the analysis of in-depth interviews conducted during the last year of a three year Reading First change initiative. The study also included archival data and field observations. It was found that teachers sustain what is within their power to sustain. The larger the support system for sustaining changes the broader teachers plan for sustaining it. In this instance teachers had a very small support system remaining after the withdrawal of grant monies. Their vision for sustaining change was limited by the withdrawal of most support structures put (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Dr. Nancy Evers (Advisor) Subjects:

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2004, Speech Pathology and Audiology

Emergent literacy is considered an important component in academic development because it is a prerequisite to later reading and writing skills. The purpose of this investigation was to determine which of the following emergent literacy factors significantly predicted spelling abilities in first grade students: (a) correct number of speech sounds, (b) reading abilities, (c) phonological awareness skills, (d) parental (caregiver) education level, (e) socioeconomic status, (f) age, (g) teacher/classroom, and (h) enrollment in reading intervention. Eighty children from a school district in Southwestern Ohio participated in this investigation. Each participant was administered a variety of assessment measures. Results indicated that the PALS reading passage level and the PALS phonological awareness tasks (Letter Sounds and Sound-to-Letter) were collectively significant in predicting the spelling abilities of children 6:0 through 7:5 years

Committee: Barbara Weinrich (Advisor) Subjects:

Master of Education (MEd), Bowling Green State University, 2005, Reading

The purpose of this study was to answer the three part research question which asked, "What types of informational resources do first grade teachers in a local county provide in their classroom libraries, how often do they require their students to use or refer to these informational materials to complete an assignment, and what instructional activities and strategies do first grade teachers use involving informational text? Surveys were sent to 58 first grade teachers in a northwest Ohio county. Of the 58 surveys sent out, 29 of the surveys (50%) were returned. Questions on the survey asked participants to indicate informational text resources available in their classroom libraries, strategies and activities they use regarding informational text, and frequency of informational text use within these instructional activities. Results for research question one indicated that trade books were found to be the most frequently represented informational source as the majority of the first grade classroom libraries contained them. Newspapers and brochures were the least represented informational text resources found in first grade classroom libraries. Results for the second part of the research question indicated that the majority of the participants in the study provided daily opportunities for their students to read informational text during independent reading time. Also, the participants indicated that their students were asked to complete assignments requiring an informational text source on a monthly basis. The most prevalent informational text strategies used in first grade classrooms were think-alouds, demonstrations and experiments to explain a concept, and modeling questioning strategies while reading. The strategy used the least was modeling how to skim and scan for important information with only a small percentage of participants marking this response.

Committee: Nancy Fordham (Advisor) Subjects: