Date of Graduation

Fall 2014

Degree

Master of Science in Education in Literacy

Department

Reading, Foundations, and Technology

Committee Chair

Beth Hurst

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a statistically significant difference in reading and spelling growth between first and second graders who were in a multi-age/grade classroom and those who were not. While there are still debates about whether or not multi-age/grade classrooms have benefits, this study needed to be pursued to determine if there are benefits. This was a causal-comparative study in which archival data in the form of pre- and post- reading and spelling scores were collected from 12 first graders and four second graders in a traditional classroom and 16 first and second graders in a multi-age classroom. Students were administered the Developmental Reading Assessment-2 (DRA-2) and the Qualitative Spelling Inventory (QSI) during the beginning and end of the 2013-2014 school year. It was hypothesized that there would be a statistically significant difference in reading and spelling growth between first and second graders who were in a multi-age/grade classroom and those who were not. A means and standard deviation for the DRA and QSI were calculated for both classrooms. Post hoc, a Paired Samples t-Test was used to determine if there was a significant gain score indicated in reading and spelling achievement between both classrooms. There was not a significant gain in scores for each test for either group on the DRA or QSI

Keywords

multi-age, multigrade, DRA, QSI, Title I

Subject Categories

Other Education

Copyright

© Iyshia Shanice Smith

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