Date of Award

Spring 5-1-2006

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Educational Leadership

First Advisor

Robert Boyd

Second Advisor

Bradley Balch

Third Advisor

Daniel Diehl

Abstract

The study examined the effects of participation in after school programs and summer programs on the academic achievement and school attendance rates of students living in poverty and African American students who attended Title I schools in the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation (EVSC) in Evansville, Indiana during the 2004 school year. The researcher examined data from the 2004 Indiana State-wide Testing for Educational Progress (ISTEP+) test for students in grades 3-9, school attendance rates and the number of days a student attended after school or summer programs. The results of this study indicate that there is a significant difference between poverty students and non-poverty students on academic performance on IS TEP+ in language arts and math at the elementary level and for math at the middle school level. There was not a significant difference noted for poverty status for school attendance at either the elementary or middle school level. 11 There was a significant difference in academic achievement between African American students and Caucasian students on ISTEP+ in language arts and math at both the elementary and middle school level. There were also significant differences between African American students and Caucasian students on school day attendance. African American students missed significantly more days of school than Caucasian students. The study yielded that there were significant interactions found between race status and poverty status on math and language arts IS TEP+ scores at the elementary school level. There were also significant interactions found between program attendance status and race status on school attendance rates for elementary school students. These same interactions were not found at the middle school level. The researcher concluded that African American students and students on free or reduced lunch who participated in after school and summer programs for 30 days or more did significantly better on the ISTEP+ test and had better school attendance than students who attended programs 0-5 days or 6-29 days at both the elementary and middle school levels. The results were more significant for elementary school students than for middle school students.

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