Relating ELA Classroom Activities with Reading Achievement: Evidence from the 2015 NAEP Twelfth Grade Reading Scores
[1]
Julie Book, Department of Teacher Education and Professional Development, Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, USA.
[2]
Mingyuan Zhang, Department of Teacher Education and Professional Development, Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, USA.
This study presented an analysis of data generated from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Data Explorer. Presented in this study are findings related to twelfth-grade students reading scores on the assessment along with the relationship between those scores and classroom practices/methods of instruction such as writing about something that was read, presenting a project about something that was read, and giving a presentation about something that was read. In order to gain a closer understanding of how these classroom practices and methods of instruction impacted reading scores, quantitative data was mined from the 2015 NAEP data set and presented in this descriptive research study. The findings of this study include (1) the highest frequency of projects completed in class did not result in significantly higher reading test scores for students. (2) Students who wrote a paragraph about something they read once or twice a week had the highest reading test scores. (3) Students who paraphrased readings in the class had higher test scores than students who merely summarized them. (4) Students who made presentations in class often had higher test scores. These findings make evident that the quality of the method of instruction and classroom practice may be more important than the frequency with which students complete projects, presentations, or writings about something they have read. One major conclusion related to the type of text-based assignment students complete—summary writing may not have a significant effect on students’ engagement with the text.
NAEP, Reading Achievement, Secondary Students, Literacy Proficiency, Data Mining, Classroom Practice
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