Student Research 2009-C
2009 Research Grant Results
Name: Sara Kupzyk
Title: Preparing Teachers to Train Parents in the Use of Evidence-based Tutoring Strategies for Reading Fluency
Research Proposal:
In practice, schools are in dire need of effective and efficient programs that improve student reading achievement. Although general research has been conducted on family literacy programs little to no research has been done on specific skills-based parent tutoring for improving reading fluency in schools. The purpose of this project was to bridge the research-to-practice gap by training teachers to engage parents in the use of evidence-based tutoring strategies. As teachers and parents have limited amounts of time to meet with one another and work with students, we sought to develop efficient training and tutoring procedures. Consumer acceptability of the training and tutoring strategies was collected to inform future development and implementation of evidence-based programs in schools. This project built on previous research by utilizing teachers in schools as parent trainers and using video training as a primary means of information delivery and skill development.
Hypothesis or Questions:
- Can teachers train parents with fidelity to use evidence-based tutoring strategies following minimal training (i.e., video modeling plus practice with peers)? It was hypothesized that teachers would show improvements in their parent training skills and deliver training with high fidelity, as they learned new information and had an opportunity to practice implementation of the strategies with a peer.
- Can parents tutor their children with high fidelity following video plus practice and feedback delivered by trained teachers? It was hypothesized that parents would use tutoring strategies more effectively as a function of having been trained by teachers and would implement the tutoring program with high fidelity.
- Does students’ oral reading fluency (ORF) improve and maintain when parents implement tutoring strategies? It was hypothesized that students’ ORF would increase during tutoring because the tutoring provided students with additional opportunities to practice reading with guidance and feedback.
- Do teachers, parents, and students rate the training methods and procedures and the tutoring strategies as acceptable? It was hypothesized that teachers, parents, and students would rate the procedures and strategies as acceptable because the strategies have been shown to be effective and require a short amount of time (i.e., 20 minutes) to implement.