| The purpose of this case study was to analyze the impact of direct instruction on the academic achievement of 342 High School English Language Learners on the English Language Arts portion of the California Standards Test (CST). Using dependent group and non-equivalent control group benchmark designs, a mixed-method methodology primarily focused on the quantitative portion to determine both statistical and practical significance. DATAWORKS Explicit Direct Instruction was the direct instruction model selected for intervention. Data were drawn from the English Language Arts portion of the California Standards Test for the 2006 and 2007 administration.;This researched-based intervention demonstrated mixed results on the California Standards Test. On traditional indicators of accountability (CST, API, and AYP) declines in test performance from pre-intervention to post intervention were observed. However, both California's Academic Performance Index (API) and the No-Child-Left Behind (NCLB) Adequate Yearly Progress indices (AYP) are based on a comparison of "successive cohorts" of students. Such a comparison assumes that the students attending the school have similar background characteristics and prior learning on a year-to-year basis. The inherent problem of using successive cohorts to measure school improvement is widely recognized by practitioners and researchers, and there is a large consensus that longitudinal measurement of individual student growth better measures student academic achievement. In the present study, the successive cohorts were dramatically different because of a large influx of students from a nearby urban area. Thus, the declines in the CST, API, and AYP scores likely were due to a changing student population and not the direct instruction intervention. |
