Goals,data use,and instruction: the effect of a teacher professional development program on reading achievement |
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| Authors: | Mechteld F van Kuijk Marjolein I Deunk Roel J Bosker Evelien S Ritzema |
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| Institution: | GION education/research, Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands |
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| Abstract: | In this paper, we investigated whether student reading comprehension could be improved with help of a teacher Professional Development (PD) program targeting goals, data use, and instruction. The effect of this PD program on 2nd- and 3rd-grade student achievement was examined using a pretest-posttest control group design. Applying propensity score matching, 35 groups in the experimental condition were matched to 35 control groups. Students in the experimental condition (n = 420) scored significantly higher on a standardized assessment than the control condition (n = 399), the effect size being d = .37. No differential effects of the PD program were found in relation to initial reading performance or grade. Different model specifications yielded similar albeit smaller effect sizes (d = .29 and d = .30). At the end of the program, students in the experimental condition were more than half a year ahead of students in the control condition. |
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| Keywords: | program effectiveness reading achievement propensity score matching hierarchical linear modeling |
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