Predicting Geography Achievement in the United States: The Role of Opportunity to Learn (Poster 22)

• In Event: AERA Poster Session Eleven
  In Poster Session: NAEP Studies SIG Poster Session

Abstract

Using data provided by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), this paper probes into the extent that curriculum content and organization, instructional methods and modalities, teacher quality, and other opportunity to learn (OTL) factors account for varying levels of geography achievement at the eighth-grade level. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) was used to estimate the strength, direction, and statistical significance of student- and teacher/school-level OTL variables as predictors of geography achievement. The HLM method accounted for data clustering, producing an effect estimate for each predictor while controlling for the effects of all other predictors. Controlling for OTL variables accounts for some but not all of the geography achievement gaps associated with race and other student characteristics.

Authors

• Michael Solem, Texas State University
  Presenting Author

• Phillip Vaughan, Texas State University
  Non-Presenting Author