A Quantitative Analysis of an Arts Program

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (Ed.D)

Department

Educational Administration

Date of Award

Summer 2013

Abstract

This study assessed the relationship of an Arts Summer Learning Program (Arts Program) to student academic performance and college readiness. A North Texas school district collaborated with a research-based Arts Program in 2010, and a new approach was implemented in the summer school program for low-performing students who had failed courses in the eighth grade. The Arts Program included district-approved core content curriculum for mathematics, science, English language arts and reading (ELA), and social studies, embedded with creative arts projects. The Arts Program was used as an intervention for students who failed course work during the regular academic year. This new approach was intended to have a positive effect on student academic performance by engaging students in creative project-based art learning. For the purpose of this study, an exclusively quantitative, quasi-experimental, comparative design was used. This study investigated two groups (treatment and control) of middle school students who failed mathematics and ELA in the eighth grade. The researcher analyzed the impact of the Arts Program on student academic performance in ninth grade mathematics and ELA course grades, students' ninth grade course credit accumulation, and data from the College Board� assessment, and the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT)/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (NMSQT) that students took in the 10th-grade. The PSAT mathematics, critical reading, and writing scores were analyzed to determine the effect of the Arts Program. A Mann-Whitney U test was used as the process and method to analyze and predict the main independent variable of interest (participation in the Arts Program) and the difference in the dependent variables, ninth grade course grades, ninth grade course credit accumulation, and 10th-grade PSAT mathematics, critical reading and writing scores. In general, results yielded no statistically significant differences between the dependent variables regardless of whether students attended the Arts Program in the eighth grade.

Advisor

Maria Hinojosa

Subject Categories

Education | Educational Administration and Supervision

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