Term

Summer 8-9-2016

Capstone

Thesis

Degree Name

MAESL

Primary Advisor/Dissertation Chair

Elizabeth Will

Secondary Advisor/Reader One

Mary Diaz

Peer-Reviewer/Reader Two

Michele Brown

Abstract

Despite funding from multiple sources, many upper elementary English Learners (ELs) in Minnesota struggle to reach grade level reading proficiency. This study examined the relationship between academic reading self-efficacy and improvement on two reading standardized tests taken annually at the school. Participants were 21 fourth and fifth grade intermediate or advanced ELs in a Midwestern town. Participants’ responses to a sixquestion Likert-style self-efficacy and reading survey were compared to two years’ worth of WIDA ACCESS and NWEA MAP reading data. Results indicated that students with lower reading proficiency had a greater standard deviation between their reading test score improvement and self-efficacy responses. Results also showed that increases in WIDA ACCESS reading scores positively correlated with self-efficacy responses, but NWEA Map reading scores negatively correlated with self-efficacy responses.

Research Methodology

Survey

Keywords

ESL/ ELLs, Motivation

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