Master of Education

This MA project was the result of me seeing students with limited English proficiency accepted to English-language universities, and wondering whether they would be able to succeed I was primarily concerned that students and their families were putting an excessive weight on standardized tests like the TOEFL, which did not seem to lead to better English proficiency. At that time, training schools like New Oriental were primarily teaching students how to take the test rather than how to use English in real life. My suspicion was that testwise strategies were effective for taking the test, but were harming student's ability to learn in English. I conducted a mixed-methods study, collecting quatitative and qualitative data from students.

• Conducted a focus group with randomly selected studnets
• Used this data to develop open-ended interviews
• Conducted survey of all students
• Conducted statistical analysis of data
• Created visuals and charts in excel
• Complete details can be found on this website and projectsin projects and instruments can be found in samples

My findings were very significant. I found a strong use of testwise strategies, and I achieved a clearer understanding of students logic in using them. I also found a notable correlation between TOEFL scores and high school GPA. Top students and low-achieving students were correlated with their TOEFL scores. However, students in the middle had no correlation between students' GPA and TOEFL score. This suggests a major effect of testwise strategies on middle-achieving students. These findings were presented to the school administration leading to the TOEFL integration projects. These results were presented at the 2018 Dipont Conference, and also led to my inclusion in the company wide English Curriculum Committee.