Access Type

Open Access Dissertation

Date of Award

January 2013

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Department

Instructional Technology

First Advisor

Ingrid Guerra-Lopez

Abstract

ABSTRACT

THE RIGOR/RELEVANCE FRAMEWORK©:ITS RELATIONSHIP TO K-12 STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT ON STATEWIDE TESTS

by

CATHERINE COLAGROSS WILLOUGHBY

December, 2012

Advisor: Dr. Ingrid Guerra-Lopez

Major: Instructional Technology

Degree: Doctor of Philosophy

This study generated empirical evidence about the characteristics of effective professional development for K-12 teachers and explored the relationship between professional development and student achievement. This study provided evidence about whether characteristics found in past studies could also be found in the Rigor/Relevance Framework, a teaching model, used for the purpose of improving student learning through activities which are rigorous and have relevance in students' lives.

In order to fully understand the link between using the framework and student achievement, principals in schools using the framework were given a five component survey examining their use of it. They were chosen because of their ability to see an overall picture of school-wide instructional practices and culture rather than just what happened in the classroom; they also had the ability to influence the degree to which teachers adopted the Framework and taught it to their students. Statewide scores from these schools were analyzed to see if the use of the framework had a relationship to these scores in reading/language arts and math. Also findings in the context of other relevant literature were researched in order to identify inconsistencies or discrepancies between the practices used in the framework and other models for student improvement.

There were several characteristics of different models that were found in the framework, but not all of the characteristics were found in this particular model because the questions the researchers were asking to create this model were unique. The Rigor/Relevance Framework was formed to help educators create assignments that have real-world unpredictable results so that students can practice solving problems they will encounter in outside the school walls; it was not formed to help students succeed on statewide tests. However, this researcher wondered if real-world knowledge could help students remember facts and problems presented to them on these tests. Although principals in 88 out of 468 schools reported using the framework considerably on an anonymous survey, the researcher did not discover a significant relationship between the pervasive use of the framework and correct answers on statewide tests in math and language arts.

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