A COMPREHENSIVE MODEL FOR READING PROGRAMS: AN ORGANIZATIONAL SUPPORT DESIGN

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to design a model through which categories and characteristics of reading programs and organizational models could be integrated to form a decision-making base for interrelating the functions of a public school reading department into the overall organizational structure of a school district. No experimental design was used for this study, nor was there any use of human subjects. This study was not stated to statistical terms. Models were used to inform or establish some of the relationships that were judged to exist between data collected and the conclusions reached. The scope of this study was both theoretical and structural in nature. The limitations were identified in the scarcity of available research on the bases for organizational models and on the absence of comparative integrating models for placing reading departments into an organizational structure. This study was directed toward the development of a model that could be utilized for the creation of a school district organizational composite to facilitate more effective planning, development and implementation for reading department programs within the composite. Parameters and guidelines to be used in the examination of organizational ideas and reading department functions were established. The procedures used included library research of literature on models and model building, a basis for model structure, distinctions regarding criteria for models, and a way of classifying models. Criteria were set for identifying a school district model that could be used as exemplary where each organizational function was identified. Six randomly selected school districts were chosen and analyzed for the place of a reading department in their district organizational structure. To gather the necessary data, four procedures were employed: (1)site visitations to three of the six school districts and interviewing the person(s) responsible for the reading department operation; (2)telephone interviews; information from two school districts was secured in this fashion; (3)collection of all available written materials, from each of the six school districts, concerning personnel involved in the reading department through organizational formats showing lines of authority, administrative responsibilities of reading personnel through job descriptions leveled under the generic categories of policy/planning, developing/interrelating, implementing/supervising, as well as reading department responsibilities by administrative divisions using the generic categories mentioned heretofore; and (4) charting data collected to provide information on personnel responsibilities and lines of authority. No significant differences were found between the goals of the different school districts. The sets of parameters for the reading programs within the total organizational support systems of these districts were basically uniform for the districts. However, a comprehensive model for a district reading program with an organizational support design should emerge from a reading department design that is interwoven throughout the programmatic offerings in a district. The most generic conclusion of this study was that the model used by the reading department should either be a microcosm of the overall district model or it should provide an illustrative example of how a generic or unifying model can function.