A Program Evaluation of a Seminar Program

Abstract

When students do not score well on standardized tests, their school can suffer. In an attempt to improve standardized test scores, a district placed students into a program called Seminar to help them work on weak areas of content through personalized instruction. The purpose of this project study was to assess if the Seminar program had a positive impact on these students' standardized test scores. The theoretical framework was based on DuFour and Eaker's theories that schools that are the most effective are those using data-driven practices set up for individualized instruction to meet the diverse learning needs of students. The research question addressed the relationship between letter grades received in the Seminar program and the achievement scores on state standardized exams. A quantitative design with convenience sampling was used to correlate the letter grades from Seminar to scaled standardized test scores. The correlations showed the Seminar program is having a statistically significant and positive impact on student scores in all 4 tested subject areas of reading/language arts, mathematics, science, and social science. The results of these correlations were used to determine the effectiveness of Seminar for each subject area, as well as create a white paper. In this white paper, recommendations are suggested to allow teachers to take advantage of strengths of the program currently in use, as well as modify areas of need that may make the program more advantageous for the school. These recommended improvements will affect positive social change by leading to better student performance in courses, increase the school's graduation rate, lower the school's dropout rate, and allow students to be life-long learners and productive citizens in society. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone [phone]. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]