College of Education
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11875/2367
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Browsing College of Education by Author "Clark, David M"
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Item Academic Achievement for Fifth-Grade Students in Elementary and Intermediate School Settings: Grade Span Configurations(Current Issues in Education, 2011) Combs, Julie P.; Clark, David M; Moore, George W.; Onwuegbuzie, Anthony K.; Edmonson, Stacy L.; Slate, John R.Few researchers have addressed student achievement outcomes as a function of grade span configurations for older elementary-aged students. Thus, this study was designed to determine differences between students’ Grade 5 reading and mathematics achievement in elementary schools (K–5) as compared to intermediate schools (Grade 5, 5–6) for 5 academic years. Using archival statewide data, researchers used a rigorous five-step distance-based formula to match elementary schools to intermediate schools on four demographic/school characteristic variables. Students in K-5 settings attained statistically significantly higher levels of reading and mathematics achievement than did their counterparts, with moderate mean effect sizes of 0.37 and 0.47, respectively.Item Math and Reading Differences Between 6-8 and K-8 Grade Span Configurations: A Multiyear, Statewide Analysis(Current Issues in Education, 2013-08-15) Clark, David M; Slate, John R.; Combs, Julie P.; Moore, George W.We analyzed the effect of grade span configurations (i.e., 6-8 versus K-8) on reading and math performance in Texas public schools for the last 5 school years. Participants in this study were 628 Texas schools (i.e., 314 middle schools and 314 K-8 schools) distributed across the 5 school years examined. Schools configured as K-8 schools were matched to middle schools using a rigorous distance-based formula. All 15 reading comparisons (i.e., grade level by school year) yielded statistically significant results, with effect sizes ranging from small to large. Eleven of the 15 math comparisons yielded statistically significant results, with all of the effect sizes being small. Regardless of student grade level or school year examined, students who were enrolled in K-8 schools had higher average passing rates on the TAKS Reading and Math assessments than did students enrolled in middle schools. Implications of our findings are discussed.