Date of Award

2006

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Education

Abstract

The current emphasis on the equal access to a qualityEducation for all children, highlighted in the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation and Public Law 221 in Indiana has stimulated much discussion on the ability of schools urban, suburban, and rural to meet this challenge. Moreover, the thrust of currentEducational initiatives in Indiana emphasize the closing of achievement gaps between various student cohorts; of particular interest is the capacity of rural high schools to reduce this gap for economically disadvantaged students. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of enrollment size and socioeconomicstatus (SES) as measured by percent of free or reduced lunch-students on the academic performance of economically disadvantaged students in rural Indiana public high schools. A 3x3 Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to determine whether the enrollment size or socioeconomicstatus of rural Indiana High Schools had an effect on the achievement of economically disadvantaged public tenth grade students on the Indiana Statewide Testing forEducational Progress Plus (ISTEP+) given in the Fall, 2003. Results indicated that the small- and medium-size conditions were significantly greater in effect than the large size condition on the achievement scores on the language arts portion of the ISTEP+ and that low and average percents of socioeconomicstatus were significantly higher in effect than high percents on the achievement scores on the mathematics portion of ISTEP+. Using a single sample t statistic, it was found that sophomore students receiving free or reduced lunch in rural Indiana public high schools had significantly higher scores on both the language arts and mathematics portion of ISTEP+ when compared to all of the tenth grade Indiana High School students receiving free or reduced lunch.

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