Date of Award

Summer 6-15-2016

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

Daniel Gutmore, Ph.D

Committee Member

Lillie Johnson Edwards, Ph.D

Keywords

extended school day, middle school, achievement, Mathematics, English Language Arts, propensity score matching, ethnicity, gender, socio-economic status, special education classification

Abstract

This study examined the influence of an extended school day, reported in instruction minutes, on academic achievement of general and special education middle school students in one public suburban New Jersey school district using English Language Arts and Mathematics data from the 2014 New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge (NJ ASK). The sample was selected using Propensity Score Matching, a statistical technique employed to reduce the influence of selection bias. The final sample consisted of 238 students in Grade 6, 238 in Grade 7, and 238 in Grade 8 in the New Jersey suburban, upper middle-income school district during the years 2011-2014. The variables that were included in this study were gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, attendance, enrollment in the extended school day middle school, special education, and past performance as measured by the Grade 5 New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge. Analyses were conducted using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), and factorial ANCOVA, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and factorial ANOVA. Results of this study indicated that attending the extended-day school with increased instructional minutes did not have a statistically significant impact on the performance of this sample of middle school students on the English Language Arts and Mathematics sections of the 2014 NJ ASK in nine of ten research questions. The null hypothesis was not supported by the data analysis and was therefore rejected in analysis of the interaction of extended school day and ethnicity on the academic achievement of middle school students in Grades 6-8 on the 2014 New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge (NJ ASK) in Mathematics. The significant differences on the adjusted marginal mean scores for Mathematics achievement based on ethnicity are important to note and are discussed further in Chapter 5. Further research is needed on extended school day to determine what additional factors may have contributed to these findings.

Additional Files
Lindsay-Harewood Dissertation 102016 .pdf (2524 kB)
Revised Dissertation
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