Degree Name

Education Specialist (EdS)

Semester of Degree Completion

1989

Thesis Director

Gary A. Blade

Abstract

This paper describes the results of a six-month field study to determine the effects of a newly adopted and implemented junior-high level science textbook series on student achievement. This study took place in the sixth, seventh, and eighth grade science classrooms of Crestwood Elementary School, Paris, Illinois, from December 1988, until May of 1989. This study compared the science achievement of two groups of students in both their sixth and eighth grade years. The Normal Curve Equivalents or NCE's and letter grades as given by the junior-high level science teachers at Crestwood, were analyzed using non-independent t tests. Descriptive data was obtained by using two Likert-type surveys. The first Likert-type survey instrument was used to determine if the three junior-high science teachers varied in significant ways as to their usages and applications of the new science textbook series, in their classrooms. The second Likert-type survey instrument was used to survey the experimental group (this years eighth graders at Crestwood which were the only group of students exposed to the treatment variable) in regard to their feelings toward the new science textbook series, and as to whether or not their new science textbook series was easier to read and/or understand than the previous textbook series. Findings from the non-independent t-tests determined that the NCE's and letter grades were statistically significant (with the exception of the Class of 1988's NCE scores) at the pre-set level of .05. Findings from the descriptive data suggest that there is a significant amount of variation among the three junior-high science teachers at Crestwood in terms of: text usages, frequency of usage, classroom level objectives, content, ideas, concepts, and knowledges related to what is taught at the classroom level. The hypothesis suggesting that the change in textbook series was statistically significant in regard to higher NCE's on standardized test scores is supported. The hypothesis suggesting that the change in textbook series was statistically significant in regard to higher grades earned by students in science is rejected.

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