Factors Undermining Engaged Scholarship With Writing Instruction in an "Underperforming" High School

• In Event: 31.092 - Sheraton Roundtable Session Three - Grand Centre
  In Roundtable Session: 31.092-9 - Multidisciplinary Approaches in Secondary School: Explorations of Reform and Transformation

Abstract

This study was a year-long investigation over academic writing instruction with ninth grade students in an urban, “underperforming” high school. Using qualitative methods with embedded quantitative features in an engaged scholarship context, we found students benefited little from the writing instruction they received. In fact, our analysis revealed students showed virtually no growth at all on multiple measures of writing performance and attitudes toward writing. Further, the university partnership with the school had little impact on the instructional practices of the teacher as well as the content for professional development sessions conducted by the instructional coach. The implications of this study paint a bleak picture for students in “underperforming” high schools and point to a need for writing reform.

Authors

• Mellinee K. Lesley, Texas Tech University

• Whitney Lynn Baker-Beach, Texas Tech University

• Ehsan Ghasemi, Texas Tech University

• Henry Duru, Texas Tech University