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  • Essay / Improving Literacy Outcomes in a High-Poverty School: Empowering Teachers Through Professional Development

    There is a significant gap between the academic achievement of children living in poverty and their counterparts. The research, titled Improving Literacy Outcomes in a High-Poverty School: Empowering Teachers Through Professional Development, aimed to reduce the academic achievement gap between children, targeting students in high-poverty schools, since a significant number of these students are performing below their abilities. Literacy, which can be seen as the ability to read and write, may be one of the factors contributing to poor child outcomes. Several methods have been initiated in order to reduce this barrier. Although this goal was not achieved, some schools managed to improve children's literacy levels. Several large-scale studies have demonstrated that teachers must be equipped with specific skills to teach literacy effectively. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essayThis study was conducted through an in-depth analysis of the literacy skills of four first-grade classes from a high-poverty school , who were eventually promoted to second grade. note during the study. Participants in this study included fifty-six students, twenty-five boys and thirty-one girls, the parents of these children, the classroom teachers, and four special education teachers at the school. With the aim of efficiently collecting data, a multilevel triangulation research design, which is based on a mixed methods approach, was used. Both quantitative and qualitative data contributed significantly to the results. Quantitative data was collected through the implementation of questionnaires, assessment of writing samples, and MANOVA and posthoc testing. Qualitative data was collected through conducting interviews, digital recordings of professional development sessions, and observations of literacy lessons in each classroom throughout the study. Data were analyzed using the constant comparative method, which facilitated multiple comparisons between qualitative and quantitative data. The use of codes was also involved, using an inductive approach until connections were observed, leading to the information being grouped into themes. The analysis procedure can be considered recurring, as continuous testing between qualitative and quantitative data has been approved. Regardless of limitations such as insufficient time for literacy, limited time for additional planning (outside of professional development sessions), methods to improve school attendance, and methods to increase engagement parents, initial results established a significant increase in academic achievement or literacy skills (reading, writing and spelling) of participating students. According to Eithne Kennedy, an increase of more than half a gap was reflected in the Drumcondra sentence reading test, between January of the first year and June of the second year. The number of students below the tenth percentile was significantly reduced by three-quarters and twenty percent of students were able to achieve above the eightieth percentile, a result that had not been achieved at the start of the program . Furthermore, the overall quality, expression and..