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Description:
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This study examined reading programs in 68 Texas elementary schools that were
identified as successful by their scores on TAAS assessment results in the 1999 -2000
school year . These schools student populations had a high proportion of culturally
diverse and low -SES students . The purposes of this study were : (1 ) to determine if and
how teaching methods and collaboration (intervention /support teams ) were used by
effective schools to foster reading success in all students ; (2 ) to identify cohesive
patterns (clusters ) or models in schools use of collaboration and teaching methods ; (3 )
to examine these clusters of similar schools and see if the patterns differed based on the
school /community demography (urban , suburban , or rural ) . The study was conducted in
68 schools in 33 school districts that represented various demographic settings from 12
different Education Service Centers across Texas . From these original 332 variables , 26
variables were selected that were of medium frequency and strongly correlated with high
TAAS scores over a 4 - year period . These 26 variables were used to examine the 68
high -performing Texas elementary schools for clusters . K -means analysis and HCA were both applied to the 26 response variables , using them as complementary techniques
to arrive at a five cluster solution . Results from correlations of individual characteristics
and from identifying school clusters suggested that school community type could
possibly be moderately predictive of student performance on the TAAS /TAKS over
time . |