Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

5-2001

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

Major

Education

Major Professor

Glennoh Rowell

Abstract

This study was an investigation of the effects of using an integrated computer program on the improvement of math and reading scores of students in grades three)through five. The program used was "Success Maker" from Computer CurriculumCorporation. Students were randomly assigned to one of two groups in each classroom;there were two classrooms at grade three, three at grade four, and two at grade five.Before students began using the computers, pretests in both reading and math were administered to them; assessments from S.T.A.R. reading and math were utilized for both pretests and posttests. Following the pretest, students in Group 1 used computers each day (each session ≅ 15 minutes) to supplement their reading and math instruction;Group 2 did not use computers for math or reading instruction during this time. At the end of five weeks, students were again given tests. Gains were determined using the scaled scores from the test results. Then Group 2 used the computer program whileGroup 1 did not. Following this five-week session, tests were again given to the students.During each session, both groups continued to do all non-computer class work and were exposed to the same curricular instruction from the teachers in their respective rooms.This cycle was repeated one more time, so each group used the computers for two alternating cycles and did not use them for two sessions.Scaled score gains were obtained for each grade for all sessions; in addition,grades were combined and overall reading and math gains were determined. T-tests were conducted for each subgroup for each five-week cycle. Distribution of scores was examined and boxplots were constructed in order to determine abnormal gain scores.Outliers were deleted from the data and t-tests were again performed.For most sessions, there were no statistically significant gains found favoring either group; there was only one instance in which statistically significant gains were realized with the use of the computer software. However, when gain scores were examined using charts to explore progress, there were some trends toward improvement that suggested that the computer use may have enhanced the instruction, especially in reading. Theresearcher concluded that there might be practical significance realized in the use of the computer, especially when one considers that students want to use the technology, andthat evidence that there could possibly be significant results obtained with longer,sustained use of the software.

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