An Analysis of the Instructional Methods Successful School Districts use to Prepare Elementary Students for the Reading Portion of the Pennsylvania State System of Assessment

Since No Child Left Behind was enacted, school districts have felt forced to focus on testing. Almost every curriculum decision is based on raising test scores. Under pressure to raise test scores, teachers are encouraged to implement strategies in their classrooms to prepare their students for the PSSA.;No Child Left Behind has left school districts eager to have students complete the PSSA in order to meet Adequate Yearly Progress. Teachers spend the school year preparing their students to ensure they do well on the assessment. However, even though every district faces the challenge of preparing students to take the PSSA, few studies have been conducted to justify which practices are most effective in this preparatory process. The objective of this study was to analyze the various instructional tools elementary teachers used to prepare elementary students to take the reading portion of the PSSA.;As part of this qualitative study, 94 third and fifth grade teachers in four local school districts who met AYP for at least the past three years completed the surveys, with four of those teachers participating in an in-depth interview with this researcher. The data collected was analyzed by this researcher to determine the factors which influenced the instructional methods and materials these teachers used when preparing their students for the reading portion of the PSSA. As a result of the analysis completed on the data, this researcher determined that teachers did not feel adequately equipped to prepare their students to take the reading portion of the PSSA. Most of the teachers in this survey used the prepared and released items from the Pennsylvania Department of Education yet felt these were not enough. They used published materials and made materials for use in their classrooms. Elementary teachers felt they needed further training and more materials developed to be successful. They needed resources such as reading experts and planning time to ensure they were meeting the demands the current No Child Left Behind legislation placed on them and their students. This knowledge can assist teachers and administrators when selecting appropriate materials and resources to prepare both teachers and students for the reading portion of the PSSA.