The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 has placed a tremendous amount of pressure on schools across the United States to perform well on state-mandated tests. One hundred percent of students must perform at the proficient level by the year 2013-2014. Therefore, it is imperative that schools identify the most effective ways to teach reading to students.
The purpose of this study was to analyze the past three years of the Ohio Grade 3 Reading Achievement Test in a rural district in Northwest Ohio. The researcher obtained preexisting data provided by the Ohio Department of Education to determine students' performance on the reading section of the test. This information provided insight into the areas of weakness that third grade students in one elementary school possessed in regard to reading. Therefore, teachers will be better equipped to provide targeted, high quality instruction as a result of the data obtained from this study.
The results of this study showed that there have been improvements in all four subcategories of the Ohio Achievement Test from 2006 to 2008. The above and below proficient scores have shown substantial progress. However, the near proficient scores have not been as consistent. Acquisition of vocabulary, reading process, and informational text appear to be making the most improvements. Literary text seems to be a troublesome area at this grade level in this district.