School Turnaround: Student Achievement Sustainability

Jolee Healey

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (Ed.D)

Department

Educational Administration

Date of Award

Summer 2023

Abstract

The lack of access to high-quality schools creates an achievement gap that limits students’ access to future earnings and longevity, exacerbating equity concerns across the nation where struggling, low-performing schools are disproportionately responsible for educating students living in poverty. Large Urban School District’s Accelerating Campus Excellence (ACE) program for school turnaround represented a model with longitudinal data for ascertaining its lasting educational impact on students. The purpose of this study was to determine if the implementation of the ACE model yields a statistically significant difference in scores between ACE students and non-ACE students. This study was conducted via a quantitative approach and a quasi-experimental design to examine if there was a difference in student growth in reading and mathematics due to the type of campus program of ACE versus non-ACE. The data for this study came from the Texas Education Agency’s STAAR Grades 3 through 8 reading and mathematics assessments. The data were the ACE and non-ACE students’ 2015-2016 elementary STAAR reading and mathematics test scores and the same students’ 2018-2019 STAAR reading and mathematics scores and represented a 4-year span. Once the students were matched between the two equally sized groups of ACE and non-ACE schools, independent t tests were used to ascertain if there were differences between the groups on student growth between the STAAR reading and mathematics tests for Grades 3 and 6. For this research, the independent variable was the type of campus program support received (ACE and non-ACE), and the dependent variable was 2018-2019 student growth as measured by percentile scores on the Grades 3 and 6 STAAR reading and mathematics tests. Findings revealed there was no statistically significant difference between ACE and non-ACE students on STAAR reading percentile scores; the null hypothesis failed to be rejected. Also, there was no statistically significant difference between ACE and non-ACE students on STAAR mathematics percentile scores; the null hypothesis failed to be rejected. Though both null hypotheses were retained, the students from ACE schools performed higher on the STAAR reading than non-ACE students. Of note, the overall small effect size could represent a practically significant STARR improvement, particularly if the improvement applied uniformly to all students and was cumulative over time.

Advisor

Melissa Arrambide

Subject Categories

Education | Educational Methods

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