Achievement gains of average ability students in a magnet program versus a non-magnet program

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Authors
Shamanoff, Gloria
Advisor
Patton, Don C.
Issue Date
1986
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Thesis (D. Ed.)
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Abstract

The purpose of the study was to determine the effect, if any, of a selected magnet school program on achievement of average ability students. Repeated academic growth of average ability elementary magnet school students was compared with repeated academic growth of average ability elementary non-magnet school students in a major school corporation in northern Indiana.Data were collected from thirty-eight average mental ability fifth grade magnet school students and thirty-eight average mental ability fifth grade non-magnet school students from twenty-two schools. Student subjects had been in the respective educational setting for at least four years. Average mental ability (C+, C, or C-) was determined by the Otis-Lennon Ability, Test, Primary II administered while the students were enrolled in the third grade. Achievement was determined by the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, Levels 9-10. Achievement score data were collected for two years, three and four for each student subject, and averaged.Analysis of co-variance was utilized to test a hypothesis of no overall difference between group means. The hypothesis was rejected with the F value significant at 0.008. A profile analysis was utilized to probe for differences, if any, among adjusted means for the ten subtests of the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, Levels 9-10. A parallelism existed between magnet and non-magnet school students with magnet students scoring higher on all of the ten subtests of the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, Levels 9-10 except math computation where non-magnet students scored higher.