Robert Kyle Johnson

678-477-2349 kyle.johnson112991@gmail.com
EDD 8404: Action Research for School Practitioners
3 December 2018

Action Research
Proposal
Introduction
• Research Question: What is the correlation between a high school
student’s Lexile score, past academic achievement, and their online
Language Arts/Social Studies grades?

• Setting: Suburban Title I school

Scenario
• Trends in past academic achievement
• Students struggle in online Language Arts/Social Studies courses.
Why?
• Purpose Statement: Definitive measure to ensure student success
• Four Characteristics that define student success
Scenario
• Success in the Least Restrictive Environment
• Little research for high school online learners
• Lexile scores/past academic achievement as a measure of success
• Benefits students, administrators, teachers, and counselors
Planning: Literature Review and Baseline
Data
• Link between online reading
ability and income inequality
• Student Characteristics of Online
Learners
• Higher self-esteem equals higher
success
• Academic skills are best predictors
Planning: Literature Review and
Limitations
• Literacy and Early Childhood Development
• No national online reading comprehension standards
• Literacy has now become deictic
• Little research on high school learners
• Self-Regulated learners
Acting: Selected Population and Data
Collection
• Twenty-two students from various courses
• Lexile scores test reading skills
• Google Sheet to compile data
• Pearson’s r formula to show correlation
Acting: Instrument Validity and Reliability
• Pearson’s Correlational
Coefficient (Pearson’s r)
• Gathering student
assessment scores
Developing: Data Processing and
Informing Practice
• Averaging of student assessment scores
• Lexile scores on one axis
• Pearson’s r to assess correlation
• Correlation does not imply causation
• Correlation is to establish readiness of online learning
Reflecting: Implications and Application
• Definitive measure to enroll students
• Ensuring success of online learners
• Guides the development of more online programs
• Throughout the school
• Throughout the district
Reflecting: Limitations
• Teachers vary in teaching style
• Stress of students to perform effectively
Reflecting: Sharing Results
• Informing stakeholders
• Face-to-face with online forum
• Online forum accessibility to stakeholders
• Provides reference to programs in the future
References
• Greene, J. A., Bolick, C. M., Caprino, A. M., Deekens, V. M., McVea, M., Yu, S., & Jackson, W. P. (2015). Fostering
high-school students' self-regulated learning online and across academic domains. The High School Journal, 99(1),
88-106. Retrieved from http://library.capella.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-
com.library.capella.edu/docview/1733927617?accountid=27965
• Kerr, M. S., Kerr, M. C., & Rynearson, K. (2006). Student characteristics for online learning success. The Internet
and Higher Education, 9(2), 91-105. doi:10.1016/j.iheduc.2006.03.002
• Leu, D. J., Forzani, E., Rhoads, C., Maykel, C., Kennedy, C., & Timbrell, N. (2015). The New Literacies of Online
Research and Comprehension: Rethinking the Reading Achievement Gap. Reading Research Quarterly, 50(1), 37–
59. https://doi-org.library.capella.edu/10.1002/rrq.85
• Leu, D. J., McVerry, J. G., O'Byrne, W. I., Kiili, C., Zawilinski, L., Everett-Cacopardo, H., . . . Forzani, E. (2011).
The new literacies of online reading comprehension: Expanding the literacy and learning curriculum. Journal of
Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 55(1), 5-14. doi:10.1598/JAAL.55.1.1
• Mertler, C. (2017). Action research: Improving schools and empowering educators (5th ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Sage
• Price, P. C., Jhangiani, R. S., Chiang, I. A., Leighton, D. C., & Cuttler, C. (2017). Correlational Research. Retrieved
from https://opentext.wsu.edu/carriecuttler/chapter/correlational-research/
• Sullivan, G. (2011). A Primer on the Validity of Assessment Instruments. Journal of Graduate Medical Education:
June 2011, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 119-120.
• Wind, S. (2018). Lexiles. In B. Frey (Ed.), The SAGE encyclopedia of educational research, measurement, and
evaluation. Thousand Oaks,, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. doi: 10.4135/9781506326139.n393