Date of Award

Spring 3-13-2015

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Executive Ed.D. in Education Leadership Management and Policy

Department

Education Leadership, Management and Policy

Advisor

Gerard Babo, Ed.D.

Committee Member

Anthony Colella, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Jason Glass, Ed.D.

Committee Member

Ryan Wise, Ed.L.D.

Keywords

standardized test scores, poverty, demographic factors

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine which combination of 15 community demographic factors account for the most amount of variance and can best predict an Iowa school district’s percentage of students scoring proficient or above on the 2010 Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS) and Iowa Test of Educational Development (ITED) for 3rd and 11th grade Language Arts and Mathematics. This study, along with extant literature and past research, supports the hypothesis that community demographic factors have an impact on state standardized test scores.

This study revealed that 20.4% of the variance in 2010 ITBS 3rd grade Language Arts scores can be explained by community demographic variables; 12.2% of the variance in 2010 ITBS 3rd grade Mathematics scores can be explained by community demographic variables; 20.3% of the variance in 2010 ITED 11th grade Language Arts scores can be explained by community demographic variables; 23.6% of the variance in 2010 ITED 11th grade Mathematics scores can be explained by community demographic variables. Using only community demographic factors, this study successfully predicted as much as 73% (11th grade Language Arts) of the actual 2010 ITBS/ITED scores and as much as 69% (11th grade Mathematics) of the actual 2010 ITBS/ITED scores. The results of this study add to the growing body of research that community demographic factors influence student achievement results.

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