School-Based in-Service Teacher Training in Literacy

Abstract

The current study is based on a year-long collaboration between a school and a university regarding professional development training of teachers who taught 4 th and 5 th grade students in an elementary school in the USA. The three-pronged focus of the study was on teacher knowledge, pedagogy and student achievement. We examined how the teacher capacity building affected the performance of underachieving students in Math and Literacy. Students' disaggregated test data was used to meet differential needs of students. Underachieving students were targeted with specific strategies, projects, problems solving stories, self-reflection, higher level thinking questions, to motivate students. Participating students' performance was measured with respect to literacy achievement. Quantitative and qualitative measures were used for data collection purposes. Students showed progress over previous years in reading scores. The results were positive and showed progress over previous years with respect to student achievement. Overall, 93 percent of students passed the writing test. In addition, the benchmark data revealed improvements during the year in reading, editing and writing scores for both 4 th and 5 th grade students. For three of the four pre and post-test comparisons, the gain in scores was statistically significant.