Measuring the Effects of Teacher-Created Student Engagement Strategies for Sixth-Grade Students With Reading Difficulties

• In Event: Teachers, Schools, and Adolescents Working Together

Abstract

Using the Student Engagement Instrument (SEI), this study tested the effects of school-based, teacher-created, engagement interventions on the school engagement of 6th grade students identified as having reading difficulties in three Pacific Northwest schools. All sixth grade students in the participating schools were required to take the SEI twice in the academic year 2010-2011; once in late September and in late May. Independent sample t-tests were conducted to compare the change in SEI scores from the fall to the spring for intervention and control students. The teachers’ engagement interventions affected students’ engagement positively in one of the schools, negatively in another and had no effect in the third school. The intervention that showed positive effects focused on students’ academic development.

Author

• Delis Cuellar, University of Oregon