This study was designed to examine the importance of continuing reading instruction throughout middle school and its effects on high stakes tests. The specific question for this investigation was, “What impact will teaching vocabulary and comprehension strategies in seventh grade science have on high stakes science achievement test scores?” The purpose of this investigation was to determine whether there was improvement of test scores after these strategies have been embedded in instruction.
Using a pre-test/post-test quasi-experimental design, questions from a state, high-stakes test were collected and used to develop both the pre-test and post-test. The questions were obtained from the eighth grade Ohio Achievement Test practice test, released by the Ohio Department of Education for the purpose of classroom practice. Questions were also collected from Study Island, a web-based assessment that includes opportunities for instruction and practice. All information was based on state standards and identified by indicators.
The students completed a pre and post-test covering science content information. After the pre-test, students continued in their daily classroom learning while vocabulary and comprehension strategies were embedded in instruction. After a five-week unit, the students completed a post-test identical to the pre-test; however, the goal was for the scores to be higher due to the new knowledge of vocabulary needed to read the questions as well as comprehension strategies to understand what the questions were asking. Quasi-experimental statistics were used to analyze the data collected. Significance was set at the α < .05 level.