Date of Award
4-1985
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts in Education
Department
Education
First Advisor
Gene Henderson
Second Advisor
Jeanne Donovan
Abstract
This study was designed to investigate whether early school entrance affected the level of standardized test performance as a child progressed through school.
It was hypothesized that students' standardized test scores would correlate significantly with the age at which they entered school, that the standardized test scores of early-entrants would be significantly lower than middle-entrants and late-entrants, that standardized test scores of middle-entrants would be significantly lower than those of late-entrants, and that there would be a significant difference between the standardized test scores of girls and boys whose chronological ages were similar at the time they began attending school.
The sample consisted of 40 eighth grade students, 24 males and 16 females. Standardized test scores for the Metropolitan Achievement Test (MAT) were accumulated for grades one through eight. In order to reduce the scope of data to a manageable level, it was determined to use the achievement raw scores for grades one, three, five, and eight.
The data gathered for this study were assessed and analyzed by the Pearson r correlation and the independent t test. No statistically significant correlation at the .05 level was found between achievement raw scores and the student's age at entrance to school. No statistically significant differences at the .05 level were found between the early-entrant, middle-entrant, and late-entrant groups and standardized achievement raw score means. Differences between the achievement raw score means for girls and boys were not statistically significant at the .05 level.
There were three limitations to this study which may have been factors which contributed to the results. First, all of the subjects for this study were from one school and this may not have allowed for the diversity one would expect from schools of different locales. Second, the sample was biased as a random selection of subjects was not made which would make it difficult to make generalizations from this study that would apply to the total population of early school entrants. Third, the sample size was 40 students and the effectiveness of the study might have been enhanced had a larger number of subjects been used.
It was concluded that since the means compared among these students were so similar that age at entrance had little impact on achievement or perhaps other factors such as parents, teachers, and/or environment may have accounted for the difference in the prediction and the actual results.
Recommended Citation
Prior, Janet, "The Effects of Early School Entrance on Standardized Test Performance" (1985). Theses. 1323.
https://digitalcommons.lindenwood.edu/theses/1323
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