Urban teachers’ implementation of SRSD
for persuasive writing following practice-based
professional development: positive effects mediated
by compromised fidelity
Debra McKeown
1
•
Erin FitzPatrick
2
•
Megan Brown
3
•
Mary Brindle
4
•
Julie Owens
1
•
Robert Hendrick
5
Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V., part of Springer Nature 2018
Abstract Writing allows access to venues often limited by poverty, disabilities, and
geography. Promoting writing skills can create bridges to overcome the isolation
that often keeps communities from engaging with one another. However, most of
the students in the nation’s schools are not capable writers and find the persuasive
genres challenging. In this wait-list quasi-experimental study, 25 teachers from four
urban schools were assigned to treatment (n = 11) or control conditions (n = 14).
Teachers received practice-based professional development to learn to teach self-
regulated strategy development for persuasive writing to their 3rd, 4th, and 5th
grade students (318 in treatment, 367 in control). Before and after intervention,
students wrote to persuasive prompts, which were counterbalanced, and scored for
holistic quality, analytic quality, and length. Teachers were observed for fidelity of
implementation and focus groups were conducted to assess social validity. Results
indicate teachers implemented with adequate, but lower than expected fidelity.
Student results indicate SRSD instruction resulted in an increase in writing out-
comes above those in the comparison condition, but effect sizes were low (holistic
quality ES = 0.15; analytic ES = 0.24; length ES = 0.15). Lower teacher fidelity
resulted in more variability in student outcomes. Teachers indicated they found the
intervention had a positive effect on students and would use SRSD in the future.
& Debra McKeown
dmckeown@gsu.edu
1
Texas A&M University, College Station, USA
2
University of North Carolina, Charlotte, USA
3
Starbucks Corporation, Seattle, USA
4
University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, USA
5
Georgia State University, Atlanta, USA
123
Read Writ
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-018-9864-3
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