Date of Award
5-2020
Document Type
Research Project
Degree Name
Master of Education (MEd)
Department
Educational Leadership
First Advisor
Brian Cavanaugh
Abstract
This quantitative study compared the impact of partnership departmentalization by content area of fifth-grade classrooms to traditional self-contained fifth grade classrooms. The direct impact of the structure shift on teacher morale and student achievement in the areas of mathematics and reading were examined. Findings indicated that for the majority of fifth-grade teachers, content specialization in a two-teacher partnership model appears to improve teacher morale. NWEA math scores showed an increase in students meeting projected growth, however overall achievement neither increased or decreased. Reading benchmark data from fall to winter was only available for students scoring below grade-level benchmark in the fall. Of those students there seems to be an upward trend of more students who scored below benchmark making bigger gains and fewer students falling further behind. A continuation of tracking this data over several years will lead to a more clear indication of improvement in student achievement in a two-teacher partnership content specialization model.
Recommended Citation
Hann, AnnMarie, "A Study of How Changes to Fifth-Grade Classroom Structures Affect Students and Teachers" (2020). M.S.Ed. in Educational Leadership Research Projects. 97.
https://scholarworks.umf.maine.edu/ed_leadership_projects/97
