Date of Award
2002
Document Type
Practicum
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Programs for Higher Education
Advisor
Gail Johnson
Keywords
academic achievement, academic courses, academic performance, arts and technology, attendance, career and technical education, Center for Arts and Technology-Brandywine, dependent samples, grade point average, high school students, literature review, null hypothesis, Octorara, one-tailed t-test, research questions, sample size, school attendance, statistical significance, student outcomes, t-test, vocational-technical education, vocational-technical school
Abstract
The Center for Arts and Technology-Brandywine (CAT-B) is a vocational-technical school, where high school students spend part of a school day learning skills in career and technical education areas. The problem addressed by this research study 2 was that the grade point averages in academic subjects and school attendance had never been researched on students who had attended the vocational-technical school.
The study contained two research questions. They were, "Does school attendance improve after one year of attending CATB?" and "Does the GPA of academic courses improve for students after attending CAT-B for one year?"
A literature review was conducted relevant to the study. A list of students who attended CAT-B and Octorara in grade ten and Octorara in grade nine was obtained. Student attendance and GPA was collected for those students. A one-tailed t-test for dependent samples was performed using the data for attendance and a t-test was used with the data for GPA.
The critical t-value for attendance was -1. 796 with a calculated t-value of -1. 497. As a result of the t-tests for attendance and GPA, it was concluded that there was no statistically significance difference indicating improvement of attendance or GPA after attending CAT-B for one year. In both cases, the null hypothesis was accepted.
One recommendation was made concerning this study. It was recommended that a larger sample with tighter controls be used for future studies.