2.4 Doctoral program issues: commentary on companion dissertations  (Page 9/14)

The abstracts for the companion dissertations for Creel and Widener are similar and indicate a single case design in one location, but studying two different populations from that location or single case site. The companion dissertations represented here are different in terms of outcome and populations.

Subsequent Replication Model

A fifth format for the companion dissertation is the subsequent replication model in which same topic is addressed for the same target population. This model distinguishes itself from the other four models aforementioned in this way-- rather than being conducted concurrently as in the other models, the dissertations in this model are usually carried out chronilogically. There is a scarcity of such a model, but we anticipate an emerging number particularly derived from longitudinal research projects. The following proposals are heuristic examples simply for illustrative purposes.

Statement of Problem. Norm-referenced measures (NRMs) or standardized measures are widely used to assess students’learning. The advantage of utilizing NRM rests on the comparability across student population, school, school district, and states. However, researchers have consistently expressed their concerns of NRMs because they not inform instruction; whereas, a curriculum-based measure (CBM) will provide teachers an added dimension in evaluating a student which is more relevant and beneficial.

Purpose. The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a curriculum-based measure on English oral proficiency and expressive vocabulary knowledge of 451 Hispanic kindergarteners participating in an on-going story-retelling intervention in an urban school district, Southeast Texas. Science concepts are incorporated in this intervention, with the objective to enhance second language learners’English vocabulary acquisition. Two research questions guided this study: (a) What is the concurrent validity of CBM with norm-referenced standardized measures on expressive oral English vocabulary knowledge? and (b) What is the concurrent validity of CBM with norm-referenced standardized measures on science concepts?

Design. A correlational design is employed to explore the relationship between scores collected from CBM and Idea Proficiency Test (IPT), Woodcock Language Proficiency Battery-Revised (WLPB-R), and Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS).

Findings. A significant relationship was identified between CBM and IPT, WLPB-R, and ITBS, respectively, with moderate effect sizes. This indicated that the instrument has reasonable evidence of concurrent validity with norm-referenced tests in kindergarten classrooms and teachers are suggested to use this in their classroom with the outlined story-retelling intervention.

Recommendations. Findings of this study apply restrictively to kindergarten students receiving the same intervention. It is recommended that as students progress to a higher grade level, the CBM needs to be modified so as to reflect an alignment with the curriculum for that specific grade level.