Predicting Student Performance on a State-Mandated Social Studies Accountability Test

• In Event: AERA Poster Session Friday 3:45pm
  In Poster Session: Educational Equity and the Impact of Structural Bias

Abstract

This study investigated the relationship among variables instructional time configuration, gender, race/ethnicity, and poverty to predict the academic performance of seventh-grade students on a state-mandated social studies accountability test. Results of 24,919 seventh-grade student social studies test scores from 117 middle schools showed, when controlling for poverty, the variables instructional time configuration and race/ethnicity were significant, explaining 11% of the variation in test results. It also showed Black students earned 26 points less and Hispanic students earned 16 points less than White students on the test and students in a 61 to 79 minute block all year instructional time configuration earned at least five points more on the test than students engaged in any other configuration.

Authors

• Kenneth E. Vogler, University of South Carolina

• Susan L. Schramm, University of South Carolina