The impact of electronic educational technology on ninth grade at-risk reading students: A quantitative investigation of reading achievement

Over 50% of American public school students read below average literacy levels. Recent research suggests that oral and print-based high school curriculum instruction require an infusion of electronic educational technology (EET), such as computer programs, online instruction, electronic thesaurus, and other devices, to better serve student need and teacher best practices. However, virtually no research has focused on EET's influence on the reading achievement of academically at-risk ninth grade students. According to constructivist theory, learning is an active process whereby students build meaning through interactions with their environment. The research question involved understanding whether EET in the classroom improved reading scores. Pre and post EET intervention Student Reading Inventory, computerized assessment, and the Group Reading Assessment Diagnostic Evaluation’s reading scores of 34 academically at-risk ninth grade reading students comprised the data and were retrieved from archived data. Repeated-measures ANOVA were used as the data analysis strategy. The results indicated that participants’ post-reading scores statistically improved by at least one grade level after EET intervention. The implication for social change is that technology can support development and administration of reading curriculum across all grade levels to increase reading skills and potentially decrease the dropout rate of at-risk students.