Publication Date

7-2011

Document Type

Thesis

Degree

Master of Education (MEd)

MA Concentration

Educational Leadership

Advisors

Pamela A. Redmond, Jim O'Connor

Abstract

Since the advent of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) in 2002, many schools and districts have adopted the use of structured reading intervention programs, such as the LANGUAGE! curriculum, in order to move students toward grade level reading proficiency. The Opportunity School District (OSD) in this study implemented the LANGUAGE! program in February 2006 for all student populations in fourth grade who scored at the far below basic (FBB) or below basic (BB) level on the California Standards Test (CST) in third grade. The 2006-2007 school year provided struggling fourth grade students an intensive English language arts (ELA) curriculum for two and one half hours a day using the Sopris West LANGUAGE! curriculum in place of the core Houghton Mifflin (HM) curriculum for ELA. At the end of the year teachers reported that many students made progress towards catching up to grade level in reading, yet few students tested proficient on the 2007 CST after completing Book A at the end of fourth grade.

This study examined the long term effect of an intensive English language arts intervention. The study tracked upper elementary students who received the Sopris West LANGUAGE! intervention program in the fourth grade, whether any progress was made, and if any resultant progress was retained through succeeding years. The study disaggregated data for English language learners and compared the resultant data on progress toward grade level proficiency to the all students in the LANGUAGE! intervention program. The study revealed that all student populations made initial progress toward grade level English language arts proficiency as measured by the California Standards Test, but that few subgroups maintained the 2007 gains or made further progress toward proficiency by the end of seventh grade in 2010.

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