National Achievement Test Scores Research Articles

Otis-Lennon School Ability Test, Association of Benedictine Schools Achievement Test, and National Achievement Test as Correlates of Academic Performance

Believing that students take several tests whose results help describe these learners, the researcher measured the correlation between the academic performance (AP) and Otis-Lennon School Ability Test (OLSAT), AP and Association of Benedictine Schools Achievement Test (ABSAT), and AP and National Achievement Test (NAT), OLSAT and ABSAT, OLSAT and NAT, and ABSAT and NAT scores of the grade 6 students of a private school in Angeles City. This is a descriptive correlational study. Using frequency and percentage, the researcher described the results of the given standardized tests and the pupils’ academic performance using general weighted average. Using descriptive statistics, the researcher learned that participants had average performance in AP and the specified tests. Using Pearson r, the researcher learned that all variables registered positive results, particularly average performance. Thus, the study arrived at significant relationships between participants’ academic performance and the named tests. The study also revealed significant relationships between participants’ AP and the tests, between OLSAT and NAT, between ABSAT and OLSAT, and between ABSAT and NAT. The study implies that the school must maintain its good teaching and learning practices and innovate to capitalize and improve general performance.

Gaps on Quality Teaching: Assessing Teachers’ Needs towards the Creation of A Framework for an Extension Program on Teachers’ Professional Development

The study assessed the professional development needs of basic education teachers in upland areas of Goa, Camarines Sur, along with the different domains of the Philippine Professional Standards for Teachers (PPST) to create a framework for an extension program. A researcher-made surveyquestionnaire was used to capture the data, and the results were statistically treated using weighted mean and percentage technique. Results showed that the majority of the respondents belong to the young population and are relatively new to the service. Also, most of the respondents have attended professional development training; however, most of these training was conducted either locally or school-based. Results also showed that the National Achievement Test scores of most of the identified schools are declining over the last three years. Based on the findings of the study, it recommended that more professional development programs be created to satisfy teachers’ needs for further improvement. The design of the programs should be holistic and touch all the domains of the PPST. In addition, the activities under the programs should be of sustained length or duration and should involve experts that may include trainers or coaches from universities and professional development organizations. A framework for an extension program was also proposed.

Determinants of Academic Achievement of Middle Schoolers in Turkey

(ProQuest: ... denotes formulae omitted.)While education provides individuals an opportunity for cognitive, social and emotional development, maintains and creates social stratification (Montt, 2011). Socioeconomic factors, along with school- and community-related factors, cause inequalities in education. For instance, gender (being female) and wealth (being poor) are major obstacles to school enrollment and achievement (Filmer, 2005; Nguyen, 2006). In some countries, females still do not have the same opportunities as males. Females do not have equal access to education and have lower academic achievement than their male peers (Nguyen, 2006). The literature has pointed to socioeconomic-related educational inequalities in underdeveloped (Grimm, 2011) and developing countries (Martins & Veiga, 2010). Students who grow up in families of low status (SES), specifically, those whose parents have low levels of education, low incomes, or low-prestige occupations, generally show slower cognitive development than students whose parents have high SES (Gamboa & Waltenberg, 2012; Hertzman, 1994; Hertzman & Weins, 1996). This can be explained with Bourdieu's cultural capital reproduction theory (1986), which holds that socioeconomic inequalities in education persist because highly educated parents give their children a better understanding of the dominant culture and an ability to act within it (p. 1017, as cited in Martins & Vegia, 2010). Identifying the sources of inequalities in educational attainment and achievement and, reducing their effects are major concerns of educational researchers and policymakers worldwide.School variables such as school culture, resources (e.g., books, teacher-student ratio), and the composition of a school can create learning situation that exacerbate imbalances in student achievement across schools (Baker, Goesling, & Letendre, 2002; Thrupp, Lauder, & Rabinson, 2002). The Equality of Educational Opportunity Study (Coleman et al., 1966), also known as the Coleman Study, surprised many researchers and policymakers, not only in the United States but throughout the world; showed that, rather than the school itself, was the and ethnic background of families that constituted the source of variation in achievement. Since then, much research has been conducted to verify whether these findings hold true in other countries as well. Some studies conclude that the impact of schools on student achievement is small in wealthy countries but relatively strong in poorer countries (Buchmann, 2002; Fuller & Clarke, 1994; Heyneman & Loxley, 1983). Other findings, however, are consistent with those of the Coleman Study (Baker et al., 2002).Beyond the acknowledged effect of family factors on school participation, the influence of school- and community-related factors on student achievement remains essentially unexplored. Binder (1999) and numerous other researchers have drawn attention to this gap in the literature. Few studies have been conducted in Turkey to examine school and family effects on school outcomes such as achievement on national large-scale assessment and the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) (Alacaci & Erbac, 2010; Dincer & Uysal, 2010; Guncer & Kose, 1993; Tomul & Savacci, 2010). Existing Turkish studies have their own methodological limitations. For instance, they used data collected by the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), which raises concerns about the validity of test results, sample coverage and representativeness (Ferreira & Gignoux, 2011). Pisa Sampling coverage rate is below 50% and no information about non-participant students is available (Carvalho, Gamboa, & Waltenberg, 2012).The purpose of this study is to explore student and school factors that contribute to inequalities in seventh- and eighth-grade student achievement in the Turkish context by using national achievement test scores. …

The drivers of month-of-birth differences in children's cognitive and non-cognitive skills.

Previous research has found that children who are born later in the academic year have lower educational attainment, on average, than children who are born earlier in the year, especially at younger ages; much less is known about the mechanisms that drive this inequality. The paper uses two complementary identification strategies to estimate an upper bound of the effect of age at test by using rich data from two UK birth cohorts. We find that differences in the age at which cognitive skills are tested accounts for the vast majority of the difference in these outcomes between children who are born at different times of the year, whereas the combined effect of the other factors (age of starting school, length of schooling and relative age) is close to zero. This suggests that applying an age adjustment to national achievement test scores may be an appropriate policy response to overcome the penalty that is associated with being born later in the academic year. Age at test does not, however, explain all of the difference in children's view of their own scholastic competence. Age adjusting national achievement test scores may help to overcome differences in ability beliefs between children who are born at different times of the year, but our results suggest that additional policy responses may be required.

Impacts of an Early Stage Education Intervention on Students' Learning Achievement: Evidence from the Philippines

This article examines the impact of a large supply-side education intervention in the Philippines, the Third Elementary Education Project, on students' national achievement test scores. We find that two years' exposure to the programme significantly increased test scores at grades 4 to 6 by about 4.5 to 5 score points. Interestingly, the mathematics score was more responsive to this education reform than other subjects. We also find that textbooks, instructional training of teachers and new classroom constructions particularly contributed to these outcomes. The empirical results also imply that early stage investments improve student performance at later stages in the elementary school cycle, which suggests that social returns to such an investment are greater than what the current study demonstrates.

NEUROFEEDBACK TRAINING IN A CASE OF ATTENTION DEFICIT HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER

Abstract Electroencephalographic biofeedback, also known as neurofeedback, has been used to improve attention in children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). In the present case study, a ten-year-old boy completed 37 sessions of neurofeedback training over a six-month period on-site in a school setting. Beta brainwave training was applied for sessions 1 – 22 and replaced by sensorimotor rhythm training for sessions 23 – 37. A review of his national achievement test scores for four years revealed he improved performance the year he received neurofeedback and the gain was lost the year after treatment was completed. The participant had been receiving methylphenidate for the previous two years and remained on the medication throughout neurofeedback and for the year after neurofeedback treatment. Findings are suggestive of the advantages of incorporating neurofeedback training as part of a multimodal treatment program in a school setting for children with ADHD.

Basic Skills, Early Problematic Behaviour and Social Maladjustment

Summary The focus of this study is on the role of basic skills (defined as the summed results of national achievement test scores in Swedish and mathematics) in boys’ social developmental process. With reference to a holistic model for individual functioning and development, the aim of the investigation was obtained by studying the relationships between basic skilb and early problematic behaviour at the age of 10, on the one hand, and later social maladjustment, manifest in the presence in official registers for alcohol problems, crime and psychiatric disorders, on the other. Based on data concerning basic skills and six teacher‐rated behaviours (aggressive behaviour, motor restlessness, shyness, disharmony, concentration difficulties, and overambi‐tion), boys with similar profiles across the seven factors were grouped together using cluster analysis. Six clusters were deemed an optimal solution. Register data for alcohol problems, crime and psychiatric diagnoses were available with no attrition. For each of the clusters, the percentage of boys who appeared in any of the records was reported. The results strongly corroborate holistic assumptions that low levels of basic skills at an early age per se is not a precursor of later maladjustment. Even when occurring in conjunction with shyness, the results did not point to an increased risk of negative social development. It is only when low basic skill levels form clusters along with other problematic behaviours that the risk increases. This, is most obvious when low basic skills is present in profiles which are also characterised by aggressiveness, motor restlessness, disharmony and concentration difficulties. Among the boys belonging to the most ‘problematic cluster’ at age 10, no less than 90% were found in at least one of the civic records through young adulthood.

Barriers To Blacks' Educational Achievement in Higher Education

In recent years various national reports have indicated substantive progress in the national achievement test scores for Black secondary students across the country. With these indicators one would expect that the results would transfer to postsecondary levels. Specifically, the achievement levels, enrollments, and successful graduation numbers and rates of Blacks from postsecondary institutions, both the undergraduate and graduate/professional schools, should have increased proportionally. This has not been the case, however. The objective of this article is to examine the recent trends in the educational achievement of Blacks at the secondary and postsecondary levels. Specifically, the aim is to provide a descriptive analysis of these trends, to review some conceptual realities relevant to their causes, and to examine some barriers to Blacks' educational achievement and issues for further research and debate on intervention strategies for improving the success of Blacks in higher education.

A Sampling of Basic Life Science Literacy in a College Population

This type of event occurs frequently in today's life science classrooms. Present-day students are not learning the basics of their subjects either because they are not being taught the material or they are not retaining much of the material that is being taught. In a recent National Geographic Society survey about countries of the world, for example, American students placed last among 10 nations on their knowledge of international geography. Only three out of every 10 American participants, for example, could find Vietnam on a map. Fourteen percent of the students could not locate the U.S. on a world globe (National Geographic Society 1988). Most of the research done over the past decade on the quality of an education in the United States, along with declining national achievement test scores, has pointed to a deteriorating academic literacy. One of the most obvious areas of national academic decline is in science education. Audrey Champagne, co-director of the Department of Education's National Center for Improving Science Education, states that, Many Americans, even those who are otherwise well-educated, have little understanding of science and how it affects their standards of living. Nor do they possess the intellectual skills to act effectively on scientific matters that they encounter in their personal, professional, or civic experiences (Champagne 1989a). In addition, the number of jobs requiring basic knowledge of science is increasing and will soon reach a point where the jobs cannot be filled by our scientifically literate work force. This will lead to the export of modern technologies to countries that still value science and are producing large numbers of science technology graduates (Hively 1988). In a recent comparison of the 13 most industrialized nations of the world, the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement listed American high school students as eleventh in chemistry, ninth in physics and thirteenth in biology. Another report found that the majority of American students stop taking math and science courses by the end of their sophomore year in high school; only one percent study mathematics through calculus, a subject taken by more than 25 percent of secondary school students in Japan. This has affected the number of baccalaureate degrees in science and engineering awarded to American students. Bachelor degrees in these areas slipped below 20 percent this year. This compares to almost 30 percent of these degrees in Japan and more than 40 percent in England and France (National Assessment of Educational Progress 1988). Literacy surveys taken by the U.S. citizens reflects this lack of general knowledge about science and technology. For example, in a survey by Jon Miller of Northern Illinois University, 45 percent of adults knew that the earth revolved around the sun and only 43 percent knew that electrons were smaller than atoms. Moreover, the vast majority of the sample (88 percent) also thought that astrology was based on scientific principles and 64 percent reported that lasers were based on sound waves. Sixty-three percent did not know that dinosaurs became extinct millions of years before the earliest humans roamed the earth. How knowledgable are people in the basic life sciences? School guidance counselors indicate that biology is the last science course taken by most students in school. One might, therefore, expect the understanding of biology to be higher than it is in the other sciences. Surely if a survey of life science knowledge was given to students that had graduated from high school and were attending college, the chance of obtaining good results would be quite high.

School achievement and absence in children with chronic health conditions

Families of 270 children with chronic health conditions observed in 11 subspecialty clinics at a tertiary care center were surveyed to assess the relation of demographic and health variables to school achievement and absenteeism. National achievement test scores and school days absent were compared with North Carolina state results. The mean days absent for children with chronic health conditions was 16 days, compared with the state average of less than 7 days, during the 1981-1982 academic year. The mean national achievement score for the chronically ill children was at the 51st percentile, compared with the 63rd percentile for the state's sixth graders. Log of school days absent was correlated with the number of clinic visits, physician rating of activity limitations, sex, and specific health conditions (R2 = 0.17, P = 0.001). National achievement scores were mainly related to socioeconomic factors and specific health conditions (R2 = 0.44, P = 0.001), but were unrelated to school absence. Children with spina bifida, sickle cell disease, or epilepsy, and children with the added burden of low socioeconomic status, were at particular risk for poor school achievement.