Examining mutable reform options for urban schools with multilevel analysis in the National Educational Longitudinal Study : 88 /
The present study examined the effects of science course taking and school urbanicity on students' science achievement levels. More specifically, this study analyzed the National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS:88) with multilevel techniques to investigate mutable reform options for urban...
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| Format: | Thesis Book |
| Language: | English |
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[Place of publication not identified] :
[publisher not identified] ;
2000.
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| Online Access: | http://proxy.library.tamu.edu/login?url=http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=728323591&sid=1&Fmt=2&clientId=2945&RQT=309&VName=PQD |
| Summary: | The present study examined the effects of science course taking and school urbanicity on students' science achievement levels. More specifically, this study analyzed the National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS:88) with multilevel techniques to investigate mutable reform options for urban schools in the area of science achievement. This study provided a unique insight into current research because all analyses were conducted with both ordinary least squares regression (OLS) and multilevel modeling techniques. Results from the comparison of OLS and multilevel techniques showed little effect on either overestimation or underestimation between the OLS weighted sample and the multilevel analysis. Although the differences between these two analyses were small, the multilevel techniques were optimized when the differences between schools was largest. Results from the multilevel and weighted analyses produced large differences when compared against the unweighted analysis. The unweighted sample consistently overestimated the coefficients of slope for each of the predictor variables. Because of these findings, researchers should be strongly cautioned against interpreting analyses run with the NELS:88 dataset without a weighted sample or without multilevel techniques. The results from the multiple regression analysis in both multilevel modeling and weighted OLS indicated that students who had parents who attended a school event, were not afraid to ask questions in science class, spent more time on homework each week, did not attend a school where science was taught in a non-English language, and had parents who belonged to a parent/teacher organization scored higher in terms of student science achievement than did their urban counterparts who did not meet these qualifications. From these results, several recommendations were made for schools concerning ways they could improve science education, including fostering attitudes of inquiry in science, increasing the quantity of science instruction, and involving parents more in the student's educational experience. |
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| Item Description: | Vita. "Major Subject: Educational Psychology". In title numerals are used. |
| Physical Description: | xvi, 174 leaves : illustrations ; 28 cm. Issued also on microfiche from University Microfilm Inc. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (leaves 153-173). |