Date of Conferral

3-20-2026

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Education

Advisor

Billie Andersson

Abstract

The Science of Reading (SoR) model has influenced curriculum reform through state mandates and classroom practices emphasizing explicit, systematic phonics instruction in response to national trends indicating significant deficits in students’ reading abilities. The problem addressed through this study was the gap in knowledge on the effect of technology-integrated SoR on early elementary students’ reading skills at a large southeastern U.S. public school district. Grounded in Gough and Tunmer’s simple view of reading theory, the purpose of this quantitative study was to explore the main and interaction effects of students’ Kindergarten Readiness Assessment (KRA) levels and 2 years of technology-integrated SoR instruction on the end-of-first-grade FastBridge Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) scores. A causal-comparative design was used to analyze secondary data of 4,508 first-grade students. A two-way ANOVA showed no statistical difference between kindergarten readiness and SoR on the ORF words read per minute (p = .291) or accuracy percentage (p = .116). Main effects showed that instructional type (p = .034) and KRA levels (p < .001) independently and significantly influenced the ORF words read per minute and that kindergarten readiness (p < .001) influenced ORF percentage accuracy. The findings may promote positive social change if SoR and students’ kindergarten readiness are incorporated into early elementary reading instruction that might support reading proficiency, which, in turn, is critical for educational success and lifelong learning outcomes.

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