| Since the inception of No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2002, reading teachers, administrators, and school districts have been concerned with identifying the best practices to narrow the academic achievement gap between struggling students, who read below their academic grade level and are at-risk for not passing their current grade level, and nonstruggling readers. At the study site, in the southeastern United States, struggling readers in elementary school continue to fall behind their peers on standardized tests. In order to support reading teachers in elementary school, administrators, and policymakers need to know about successful reading instructional strategies to support these struggling readers. This qualitative case study was grounded in the social cognitive theory of Bandura. The purpose of this study was to address the research question that involved understanding the experiences of elementary school reading teachers who teach struggling readers. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 reading teachers using open-ended interview questions. Themes were developed using qualitative case study analysis through coding of the interview transcripts. The findings indicated that the participants had overall positive experiences teaching struggling readers. The findings revealed several strategies for reading teachers that will potentially help educators prepare curriculum for teachers of struggling readers. Teachers and researchers can benefit from an increased awareness of the importance of supporting reading teachers through district-wide professional development programs. Implications for positive social change include improvements in the reading instruction and staff development for reading teachers in order to help struggling readers improve their reading proficiency. |
