Degree Name
EdD (Doctor of Education)
Program
Educational Leadership
Date of Award
8-2016
Committee Chair or Co-Chairs
Virginia Foley
Committee Members
John Boyd, Lee Daniels, Don Good
Abstract
The Maryville City School system has implemented the first year of the iReach blended learning model for which all students in the school district have access to either a laptop or an iPad to support their learning every day. The availability of research on the impact of iReach is limited because the blended learning instructional model is relatively new and has not yet been subjected to numerous research studies. The purpose of this ex post facto quasi-experimental quantitative study was to compare student reading Lexile growth data collected through the use of the Reading Comprehension Assessment before and after iReach implementation to determine if there was a correlation between the implementation of iReach and reading Lexile growth of students in Maryville City Schools. Paired-samples t test results based on data collected from the 2015-2016 freshman cohort as well as subgroups (males, females, economically disadvantaged, and noneconomically disadvantaged) depict significantly more reading Lexile score growth during the eighth grade year before the school system implemented the iReach blended learning initiative than during the ninth grade, the first full year of iReach implementation. Paired-samples t test results based on data collected from the 2015-2016 sophomore cohort to use for comparison to the freshman cohort demonstrated the same significant pattern of growth. These findings suggest that the implementation of iReach is not a sole factor affecting the reading Lexile growth of students. Results from a 2-way contingency table analysis reflect that the freshmen cohort had significantly more students than expected who increased their reading Lexile scores from eighth grade pretest to ninth grade posttest than the expected frequency of students in the sophomore cohort who increased their scores. These significant findings indicate that either the implementation of iReach, another variable, or a combination of variables worked better for the freshman cohort and attributed to the higher than expected frequency of students whose scores increased.
Document Type
Dissertation - unrestricted
Recommended Citation
Schmidt, Whitney Ann, "iReach Blended Learning Model and Reading Lexile Growth of Freshmen in Maryville City Schools" (2016). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 3102. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/3102
Copyright
Copyright by Whitney Schmidt
Included in
Curriculum and Instruction Commons, Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons, Educational Leadership Commons, Educational Methods Commons, Elementary and Middle and Secondary Education Administration Commons, Instructional Media Design Commons, Junior High, Intermediate, Middle School Education and Teaching Commons, Online and Distance Education Commons, Secondary Education and Teaching Commons