Book Description

With over 60 years of education reform, including the National Defense Education Act (NDEA) in 1958, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 1975, and No Child Left Behind (NCLB) in 2002, the achievement gap still existed at the beginning of the 21st century, and the effectiveness of the U.S. public school system continued to be questioned. This study was conducted to examine the effect of the use of a computer-assisted instruction curriculum, Achieve 3000®, among select secondary reading students in a central Florida school district and their implications for student achievement. This study showed significant difference existed in the type of students rather than the reading program. The ANCOVA performed on all students and the ANOVAs performed for exceptional education students, males and females, free/reduced lunch and ethnic subgroups did not show a significant statistical difference in the 2012-2013 reading achievement scores. The Achieve 3000® reading program did not close the achievement gap any more than the non-Achieve 3000® reading program. Conversely, the ANOVA performed for English language learners did show a significant statistical difference between the 2012-2013 reading achievement scores. However, the effect size each question was small indicating the practical implication was also small. Ultimately, this study made a strong argument for the need for further research.