Project 3 FEA Plan

FEA Plan

Examining Reading Homework Return Rates

Kate Palumbo

IDE 712

Instructor Jing Lei, Ph. D.

Summer 2009

Performance Problem

The proceeding document is a proposal for a diagnostic front-end analysis to explore homework return rates of elementary students in grades K-5 at Delaware Academy. The purpose of the plan is to determine, identify and propose possible solutions for solving the performance problem of declining rates of reading homework return. The research is conflicting regarding the benefits of homework assignments except in the area of students reading aloud. For example, Cooper et al. (2001) found little correlation between homework completion and an increase in test scores in elementary school children. However, The National Reading Panel (2001) established that when children read orally, both to teachers and parents, there was a significant impact on comprehension and fluency. Furthermore, independent silent reading is not effective when used alone. The required homework assignment referred to in this plan is for grades kindergarten through fifth to read orally to an adult at home for twenty minutes daily. This amount is consistent with what the National Education Association recommends for primary students. The adult is to sign a form indicating that the child has performed the task. Students return this form daily so that teachers may keep a record. The average return rate for the 2008-2009 academic year was 40%, meaning that 40% of the students completed and returned reading homework at least 80% of the time. Informal conversations with parents in the past hinted at their child’s avoidance of completing homework and the issue of homework often creating conflict within the family. There is a tremendous gap between the actual return rate and the optimal return rate of 100% of the students returning homework at least 80% of the time. A secondary benefit to increasing homework return rates is an increase in parent involvement. Bailey et al (2004) discussed the implications of Interactive Reading Homework (IRH). Amongst a short list of requirements, a child is asked to read aloud to her parent while the parent acts as sort of tutor by asking comprehension questions. One conclusion found is that when parents show an interest in a child’s assignment, the more likely it is that the assignment will be completed. Furthermore, reading each day for enjoyment is listed as a performance indicator on the New York State English Language Arts Core Curriculum (2005). Comment by Jing Lei: It is very good that you used research to support your argument. Comment by Jing Lei: Same as above. Good use of research to support your point.

Context

Delaware Academy is an urban elementary school within the Syracuse City School District. Currently, the school has been given a School Under Review and Restructuring (SURR) status. The enrollment for the school is 481 students. Ninety percent of the students receive free lunch while another six percent qualify for a reduced rate. Forty one percent of the students are Limited English Proficient (native language is Spanish). The ethnic background of the students is 30% African-American, 55% Hispanic, 13% White and 2% Native American. The average attendance rate is 89%, meaning 89% of the students attend daily, while the suspension rate is 23%, indicating that 23% of students lost one or more days of instruction due to in-school or out-of-school suspension (New York State Department of Education, 2009.) The reading program utilized by the school is called Success For All (SFA) developed by Robert Slavin through Johns Hopkins University. The program occurs during a 90 minute uninterrupted reading block where students are instructed in homogenous groups according to their reading level. Delaware is the only school in the district that is using the SFA approach. As stated earlier, a component of the program is that all students are required to read aloud at home daily to an adult. Homework return has been listed as an area in need of improvement on the school’s improvement plan for the last several years. Many initiatives have been implemented unsuccessfully in order to improve the rate of homework return. The following is a list of attempts used to date:

· Home-visits to parents of in-coming first graders to explain homework expectations

· Earning points for cooperative teams if homework is complete

· Second cup of coffee for parents to demonstrate guided reading lessons

· Competition amongst teachers to see who receives highest amount of returns

· Rewards for 80% completion for students, including movies and popcorn, roller skating party, carnival, kayaking, dance, ice cream sundaes

· Reading is Fundamental (RIF) distribution of free books at appropriate reading level and interest level four times yearly

· Staff dressing up as characters from favorite books to promote excitement

· Phone calls to parents when homework is not returned

· Loss of play time when homework is not returned

· Providing homework help rooms 20 minutes prior to the start of the school day for students to complete assignment; rooms staffed by non-classroom personnel

· After-school programming in which time is allotted for homework completion

· Guest speakers from neighborhood library

· Syracuse University students and Seniors from Catholic Charities as reading partners

According to the staff, it is important to note, although accurate records have never been kept, that a.)many families do not have operable phone numbers b.) roughly 60% of parents are at home at time of visits c.) less than a dozen parents attend formal workshops when offered.

The above is a very thorough introduction of the context and the performance problem.

Clarifying / Justifying the Problem

Delaware Academy is heading into its second year as being designated a SURR school. SURR status is based upon the students’ performance on the New York State assessment in English Language Arts. Less than 40% of the students met or exceeded the standards for the past three consecutive years. The only subgroup in which adequate yearly progress was achieved was the “white” subgroup. The largest portion of the assessment is reading comprehension. This is a timed assessment in which students are penalized for unanswered questions. Fluency plays a huge role in both reading comprehension and words read per minute. Research suggests that a key factor in developing fluency is oral reading practice (see Cooper et al, 2001.) Three hours of reading instruction daily is recommended (Shanahan, 2000), but not actually feasible. Considering the limited time within the traditional school day, it is important that children perform additional reading outside of the hours of 9:00am to 3:00 pm.

The problem of not performing additional oral reading at home may be impacting students’ success, performance scores on state assessments, and ultimately the future of the school. It is imperative that this problem finally be rectified due to the extenuating circumstances. Well justified.

Plan for Seeking Solutions

The plan for analyzing this model is based upon Allison Rossett’s Training Needs Assessment (1987). Five types of information will be gathered: optimal performance, actual performance, feelings from all involved stakeholders (students, parents, teachers, administrators,) causes of deficiency from stakeholders’ perspectives and solutions. The information will be further categorized by reasons proposed by Harless (1970). Causes will be identified as either environmental, motivational, and skill or knowledge. Rossett further defines Harless’s terms. Knowledge and skills are a determining factor in ineffective performance if the student, parent or teacher can not execute the task no matter what. Motivation is viewed in terms of proper and improper consequences, known purposes, and strong and suitable incentives. The value of completing homework along with teachers and parents’ expectations also influences motivation. Environmental factors include personnel impacts, policies and available tools to get the job done. A problem may also lie in the conflicting standards of parents and the school. Refer to Table 1 for examples of each cause.

Table 1

Extant data will be reviewed. Each eight week period, teachers return a Quarterly Assessment Summary (QAS) in which the percentage of homework completed is recorded. The data will be analyzed by reading level and reading teacher. It will be noted if certain teachers have a higher incidence of homework return. Furthermore, ages of students, grade levels, reading levels and the discrepancy among these three variables will be analyzed in relation to the homework return percentages of these students. Additionally, subject matter experts (reading specialist, Success For All trainers, and pertinent research (Cooper et al, 2001; Olympia et al, 1994)) will be consulted as to the typical reasons children do not complete homework. Other extant data include:

· New York State Core Curriculum for grades K – 5

· Syracuse City School District Benchmarks

· New York State English Language Arts Assessments for years 1999-2009

In addition, there will be three main instruments that will be used and analyzed for the performance problem. Comment by Jing Lei: What are the instruments? –later I see that you discuss them later in the paper, so here you can briefly introduce them and tell your audience the detailed info. will follows.

Plan for Seeking Approaches

The following is a description of the knowledge elicitation techniques that will be used and analyzed for the performance problem. Techniques were selected based upon a job task analysis and activity theory analysis. It is valuable to view the performance problem from a job task perspective when trying to solve the lack of homework return. Students actually need to complete a task in which they have been instructed in how to do. Seeing that job task analysis only looks at the behavioral components of performance, another view is needed. It is important to look at the social and contextual relationships among those involved in the activity (students, parents and teachers) through an activity theory task analysis perspective. It is vital to understand the dynamics between these groups of people. The following figure is adapted from Jonassen et al (1999) to define an activity system.

Tools

books

listeners

Object