Third Through Ninth Grade Teachers’ Perceptions of Students’ Performance with the Read 180 Reading Intervention Program: A Qualitative Exploratory Case Study

Abstract

Teacher perceptions influence student reading mastery achievement. The problem is that third-through ninth-grade students in a southern United States county demonstrate low self-efficacy and literacy competency achievement when utilizing the Read 180 program. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore how third-through ninth-grade teachers implementing the Read 180 program with fidelity in a southern school district perceive the influence of their instruction on student literacy achievement. The influence teachers' perceptions of the Read 180 program have on student efficacy was vital to this study. The theoretical foundation for this research was based on the expectancy-value theory and the interactionist theory. A questionnaire and interviews were the methods used for data collection of a sample size of 15 participants. The results of this research contributed to closing the gap in the literature related to teacher perceptions and student efficacy while using Read 180. A thematic analysis was utilized to analyze the data collected from the questionnaire and interviews. The results of this study showed teachers are aware of their perceptions of student literacy achievement. Conclusions drawn included teachers identifying their role in student literacy achievement and how heavily this role weighs on students ascertaining grade-level mastery in reading. A recommendation for future research is to explore student perceptions of the Read 180 program and its benefits on literacy achievement.