Dissertation Abstract

The purpose of my study was to examine the effectiveness of the Study Island Program

as a formative assessment tool in the secondary levels of reading and math. Study Island is an

online tool that assesses students according to their state’s standards in English and math.The

research design for the study was quantitative in nature and quasi-experimental with one

independent variable consisting of two categories based upon participation status. Fourchi-

square tests of independence were used to address the hypotheses that academically at-risk

students who participated in the Study Island program performed better on the Kansas Reading

and Math Assessments than the academically at-risk students who did not participate. Additional

analyses were conducted to determine the amount of improvement of the entire sample from the

Center for Educational Testing and Evaluation (CETE) diagnostic reading and math assessments

to Kansas Reading and Math Assessments. Data from the four chi-square tests did not support a

statistically significant relationship between the participation in the Study Island program and

success on the Kansas Reading or Math Assessment. Data from four frequency tables indicated

a greater percentage of improvement from the CETE diagnostic assessments to the Kansas

assessments than non-improvement, regardless of participation status. Ultimately, there was no

significant statistical indication that the at-risk students who participated in the Study Island

program had a greater percentage of improvement than the non-participants. The findings of this

study could help high schools within the Blue Valley district determine if this particular online,

formative assessment intervention could impact their students’ learning and performance on

summative tests.