Browsing by Subject "Achievement gap"

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    Academic achievement gap: the role of ethnicity and parent involvement in predicting reading achievement
    (2014-08) Ricks, Teri Marsha Primm
    The purpose of the present study is to investigate the relative strength of parent involvement versus ethnicity and how they affect the academic achievement gap between racial backgrounds of Caucasian, African-American, Asian, Hispanic, and Native American as measured by the reading portion of the State Site of Research Comprehensive Assessments-Series (SSRCA-II). The sample is drawn from Connecting Parents to Educational Opportunities (CPEO) parents and their children who are in the district which was the site for this research. To be classified as a CPEO parent, he/she had to have completed a seven-week course at one of the research participant's Title I school sites since its 2008 inception year to present. The composition of student racial backgrounds in the present study was 53% Caucasian and 25% African-American students, which made up 78% of the sample. Hispanic, Asian, and Native American students at percentages of 12%, 7%, and 3%, respectively, represented the remaining 22% of the sample. The inferential statistical results are based on the logistic regression analyses. Parenting and ethnicity variables, which were both independent variables, did not significantly improve any of the models' ability to predict students' reading proficiency. However, social economic status (SES), control variable, remained statistically significant through all of the analyses. Referring to the research question, the major finding from the research showed that SES was a significant predictor of student reading achievement. The findings were not expected but informative in terms of reshaping the discussion on academic achievement. The present study was not an experiment. Therefore, causal claims cannot be made, but implications for practice may be drawn from the data analyses. Insights gained and ideas to ponder based on the data analyses are the (a) Cradle to Prison Pipeline, (b) equity of opportunities, and (c) business education.A pathway has been laid to answer the research question and provide new knowledge to school districts and the research community with a focus on equity, achievement and excellence for K-12 students. The focus on parent involvement and ethnicity should be redirected to address the challenges of SES. Parent involvement and ethnicity are factors in the achievement gap issue. However, addressing SES primarily may bring greater reduction in the achievement gap and increased student achievement among public school students.
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    A cross-cultural comparison of predictors of achievement amongst Caribbean students: attitudes and behaviors that may explain the achievement gap between girls and boys in the English-speaking Caribbean.
    (2012-08) Bowe, Anica Gwenell
    Presently in the English-speaking Caribbean, boys' underachievement at the K-12 level is a topic of great concern. Qualitative studies focusing on boys' underachievement have raised the question as to whether this issue is situational and due to short-comings in Caribbean education systems or whether it is actually endemic to Caribbean culture. Quantitative studies addressing these cultural attitudes and behaviors have been limited; therefore this study sought to address that gap and provide quantitative evidence that might explain the girl advantage amongst Caribbean students. This study utilized the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England database which contains a nationally representative sample of English youth that began in 2004 when the young people were about age 14 and in the 9th grade. This database was chosen because it contained a sample of students of Caribbean descent and it had also collected information regarding attitudinal and behavioral variables of interest that have been highlighted in Caribbean studies. In particular, by using data outside the Caribbean, this study lent itself to addressing the question of whether Caribbean boys' underachievement is situational or cultural. First, Caribbean students were compared to those from other ethnic groups on nine attitudes and behaviors of interest. Second, evidence for a girl advantage between boys and girls of Caribbean descent in Math, English and Science at the 6th and 9th grade levels was also explored. Third, the relationship between school type and the girl advantage was examined. Fourth, interaction terms between gender and attitudes/behaviors were examined to determine whether any were important in explaining the Caribbean girl advantage. Finally, it was determined whether attitudes and behaviors were still important even after controlling for the school environment. This study employed confirmatory analyses, independent samples t-tests, growth curve analyses, hierarchical linear model analyses, and multiple regression when appropriate to address the questions understudy. The results demonstrated that Caribbean students generally displayed less positive attitude towards school, had more risky behavior, and had lower academic self-concept, but had parents who perceived themselves has being more involved with their child's school life. Secondly, Caribbean girls displayed an academic advantage over their male counterparts in at least 2 out of 3 subject areas at both time points. Third, no mixed-gender school appeared to attenuate the girl advantage. Fourth, by modeling certain demographic and attitudinal/behavioral variables, the Caribbean girl advantage at Key Stage 3 was accounted for in Math and Science but not English. Lastly, the importance of certain attitudes and behaviors in predicting achievement remained robust even after controlling for school environment. Overall, these results demonstrated that the Caribbean girl advantage is perhaps innate to Caribbean culture. Thus, Caribbean researchers ought to make headways in developing psychological and psycho-social instruments that can measure constructs that may perhaps explain this advantage.