Date of Award

1-2004

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Education

Department

Education

First Advisor

Nancy Schneider

Second Advisor

Richard Boyle

Third Advisor

Larry Matthews

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate elementary (K-6) principals' knowledge of student grade retention research and the nw11ber of students that were retained in their buildings to see if there was a difference between the grade level retention rates of principals who were aware of the negative affects of retention and those who were not.

Procedure: Responses were received from 32 Missouri public elementary school principals. The respondents were divided into two groups based on responses to the retention knowledge questions. Those respondents whose average retention research knowledge score was 3 or higher were placed in group A. Those respondents whose retention research knowledge was less than 3 were placed in group B. The retention rates of the two groups were compared. The Two-Sample F test for variance was computed. The t-test for two- samples assuming equal variances was then computed.

Findings: The F-Test resulted in a p-value of0.3 19122 which is greater than .05; therefore, the t-Test for two samples assuming equal variances was completed. The resulting pvalue was 0.020684. Therefore the null hypothesis that there would be no difference -between the two groups (A=B) at .05 confidence level was rejected.

Conclusions: The grade level retention rates of principals who are familiar with retention research are not the same as the retention rates of principals who are not familiar with retention research. The implication is that retention research is used when grade level retention is applied.

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