Author(s)

Jeff Gorman

Date Approved

7-7-2011

Embargo Period

3-3-2020

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ed.D. Educational Leadership

Department

Educational Leadership

College

College of Education

Advisor

Manning, JoAnn

Subject(s)

Individualized instruction; Academic achievement

Disciplines

Elementary and Middle and Secondary Education Administration

Abstract

This is a quasi-experimental quantitative study that sought to determine the association between differentiated instructional elements or strategies and student achievement as measured through pretest and posttest results for teacher created units of study in the area of mathematics and language arts literacy. A series of descriptive and parametric inferential statistics was utilized. A one-between one-within analysis of variance (ANOVA) on change scores by time (pretest vs. posttest) and group (primary vs. elementary vs. middle vs. high school) was conducted. The results for the main effect of time were statistically significant as indicated by F (1,194) = 530.30, p = .001, and as indicated by the smaller mean for the pretest (M =47.19, SD = 30.09) than the posttest (M=79.85, SD = 20.23). The effect of the interaction between each group and time was significant as measured by F (3,194) = 54.61, p =.001. This statistical significance denoted an improvement in student achievement as a partial result of the application of differentiated instructional elements or strategies. A multiple regression was conducted, and the results of the regression were deemed significant by F (3,194) = 30.61, p = .001, and the independent variables accounted for 32.1% of the variance in the change score. The related results implied that teachers who most frequently utilized ongoing assessment for learning had an increase of .25 units; the teachers who most frequently utilized flexible grouping had an increase of .04 units; and the teachers who most frequently utilized clear learning goals (KUDs) had a decrease of .07 units. With respect to these descriptive and parametric inferential statistics, there was a significantly positive association between differentiated instruction and student achievement.

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