Date of Award

2007

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Education

First Advisor

Dr. L. Carolyn Pearson

Abstract

NCLB demands academic achievement in return for federal funding. Many Arkansas schools are having difficulty meeting these academic achievement goals. The purpose of the study was to explore the relationship between grade span configuration and academic achievement as measured by the Arkansas Benchmark Examination, which is the approved NCLB criterion-referenced annual assessment. The population identified was all schools in Arkansas containing grade 6. A purposive sample was drawn containing three different grade span groups according to the year of transition of 6th grade students ( N = 281). Data collection involved gathering results of the Benchmark Exam in mathematics and literacy for 2005, 2006, and 2007 from the Arkansas Department of Education website, which was presented as the percentage of students in the school scoring in each of four performance levels (below basic, basic, proficient, advanced). The ex post facto design had two dependent variables, the performance levels of the mathematics and literacy scores. There were three independent variables: grade span configuration (three levels), years included in the study (a repeated measure) and the performance level (described above). Because the original interval scores (exam scores) were categorized into ordinal data (performance levels), the data were analyzed both as interval and as ordinal. The results of a hierarchical doubly multivariate two-factor MANOVA revealed non-significance for grade configuration alone. Examination of the percentages over time revealed that when the upper levels of performance means for mathematics and literacy were combined (proficient and advanced), grade configuration was not significant. Categorical data modeling with cumulative logits was performed with a data set containing the mean frequencies of the four performance levels. In both mathematics and literacy, this continued to indicate non-significance in grade span configuration. These results suggest that grade span alone does not account for 6 th grade students' academic achievement as measured by the Arkansas Benchmark Examination; however, the research contributed new information with the strength of utilizing a large sample size representative of an entire state.

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