THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE ACHIEVEMENT OF … · HSTEC and the California Short Form Test of Mental Maturity (.72) and the California Achievement Test (.74) administered in grade

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE ACHIEVEMENT OF STUDENTS ON THE HSTEC AND SPECIFIC STUDENT BACKGROUND AND SCHOOL-RELATED VARIABLES

Richard J. Port

Introduction

The Hawaii State Test of Essential Competencies (HSTEC) was administered in April 1978to1,346 tenth-grade students and 997 twelfth-grade students attending seven public high schools, one in each of Hawaii's school districts. This test measures student mastery of fourteen essential competencies. The competencies are categorized into two groups: basic skills and other life skills. The percentages of students in grades ten and twelve whose scores fell below the standard (cut-off) scores follow:

Basic Skills Other Life Skills

Purpose of The Study

Grade 10 26.6% 41.6%

Grade 12 16.5% 27.0%

The Department of Education granted permission to this investigator to conduct a study which would obtain additional information concerning the stu­dents who participated in the pilot test adminis­tration, and shed some light on the background and previous educational experiences of students scoring above and below the critical HSTEC score. This study investigated the relationship between the achievement of tenth-grade students on HSTEC and certain background and school-related vari­ables. These variables included their age, sex, place of birth, ethnicity, number of siblings in their family, their rank order in the family, the value of their residence, the income and educational level of families in their areas, their family's socio­economic status, their number of years attendance in Hawaii's public schools, the number of schools attended, t~e~r absent~eism, participation in pro­grams proVldmg certain types of special curricular assistance, their scores on various standardized tests taken between grades two and ten, and their letter grades received on report cards.

Many of these variables have been found to relate to student achievement in various studies conduct-

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~don the Mainland.• This study investigated the importance of these relationships for children in Hawaii's schools. It also represented a rather unique attempt to follow the educational careers of students over an eleven-year period.

The population for this study included one-third of the 1,346 tenth-grade students who participated in the pilot test administration of HSTEC in April 197.B. Every third name was drawn from an alpha­betical school by school listing of the 1,346 students.

PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA

Socio-economic Status

Three principal methods were used to determine the relationship between student achievement scores on the Hawaii State Test of Essential Competencies and their families' socio-economic status in the community. The first method involved the use of the Hollingshead Two-Facor Index of Social Position. This index has frequently been employed to estimate the positions individuals occupy in the status struc­ture of society and assumes that occupation and education are the two most important factors in determining the individual's or household's social position. A second method used available census ~at~ fr~m the ~970 census and the 1975 update md1cating the mcome and education level of the population residing in a student's census block. The third method used the land and improvement values of the student's residence. The highest (in absolute value) relationship was - .45 between the HSTEC total score and the first method, the Hollingshead fon:nula. All three methods produced relationships which were statistically significant from zero, in­dicating that students with higher HSTEC scores tended to come from homes with higher socio·

• "Mainland," in context, refers to th~ continental United States .

economic status than did students with lower HSTEC scores (see Table 1). Family Organization

Eightrthree percent of the sample students were reported as living with both parents. The mean HSTEC Basic Skills score for these children was higher than for the other students who were living with one parent or with a guardian. Students who were residing with both parents also came from families with higher socio-economic status and lived in homes with higher land and improvement values. The HSTEC (p < .01) and Hollingshead (p <.001) differences between the two groups were statistically significant.

Student Ethnicity

The HSTEC Basic Skills scores of the various ethnic groups represented in the sample were compared utilizing available categories represented in the Department of Education ethnic data. The HSTEC achievement scores for each group generally correspond to the group's socio-economic status and, to a somewhat lesser extent, with the value of the homes in which they resided. There was a tendency for Korean, Japnnese, Chinese, and white students to score higher on HSTEC than Spanish, Portuguese, Filipino, Hawaiian, part-Hawaiian, and Samoan students. The first four groups also tended to have higher Hollingshead socio-economic scores and live in homes with higher land and improve­ment values than the other groups.

Student Place of Birth

Seventy-six percent of the sample students were born in Hawaii; thirteen percent were born on the Mainland; and eleven percent were born elsewhere. Students born on the Mainland received higher scores on HSTEC than students born in Hawaii and students born in Hawaii scored higher than students born in other countries or territories. Hollingshead socio-economic status means for these three groups followed the same pattern.

Number of Children in Family and Chronological Position of Student The relationship between the number of children in the student's family and the HSTEC scores was investigated. A correlation of - .31 indicated that children from large families were more likely to score lower on the HSTEC.

The effect of the chronological position of the student was also studied. The relationship ( - .20)

indicated that there was a tendency for younger siblings to score lower than older siblings.

Number of Years Spent in Hawaii's Public Schools

The relationship between HSTEC Basic Skills achievement scores and the number of years of student attendance in Hawaii's public schools was found to be non-significant; however the group with the highest HSTEC scores was the group which had attended Hawaii's public schools for eight to ten years. The group with the lowest HSTEC scores was the group which had attended Hawaii's public schools for two to four years. The results corres­ponded to the Hollingshead socio-economic status scores for these two groups.

Location and Types of Schools Students Attended

An analysis was made of the location and types of schools students had attended between kindergarten and grade ten. The figures indicated that the HSTEC Basic Skills means for (1) students who had attended Mainland and Hawaii's private and public schools and (2) students who had attended Mainland and Hawaii public schools were higher than the means for (3) students who had attended only Hawaii's public schools and (4) those who attended Hawaii's public schools and the schools of other countries and territories. It should be noted, however, that these HSTEC means also corresponded to the rank order of the Hollingshead socio-economic status means for the four groups.

Achievement and Aptitude Tests

The relationship between HSTEC and standardized tests administered to the sample students between grades two and ten ranged from moderately strong to very strong. The highest relationship occurred between HSTEC and the Stanford TASK Reading Test (.86), which was also administered in grade ten, and between HSTEC and the STEP Reading (.78) and Mathematics (.80) tests, both administered in grade six; however, the relationships between HSTEC and the California Short Form Test of Mental Maturity (.72) and the California Achievement Test (.74) administered in grade two, that is, eight years prior to the administration of HSTEC were also surprisingly high.

Student letter Grades At the elementary school level, student grades for reading, writing, speaking, listening, arithmetic,

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personal and social attitude, and work habits were collected. At the secondary level, English and mathematics grades were gathered. In general, the relationships were weak to moderate. The highest correlation occurred between HSTEC and the combined reading scored for grades one through six (.59). The relationships between HSTEC and the tenth grade English and mathematics grades were only .25 and .23 respectively, whereas the relation­ship between HSTEC and the first grade reading grade, that is, the grade received nine years earlier, was .46.

Student Absenteeism

Student absenteeism between kindergarten and tenth grade was examined to determine its relationship with HSTEC scores. The correlation between the HSTEC total score and the combined absenteeism for kindergarten through sixth grade was - .25; for seventh through ninth grade, it was - .28; and for kindergarten through tenth grade, it

was - .33. These negative correlations indicate that there tended to be a relationship between greater absenteeism and lower HSTEC scores.

Student Retention

Only thirteen of the 449 sample students had been retained at a grade level for more than the typical one year period. Six of these students were male, seven were female. Seven were part-Hawaiian; two were Japanese; and one each was Spanish, Samoan, and white. All but one of these students were born between May and December; thus they tended to be among the younger members of their age group. Hollingshead scores show that the retained students came from lower socio-economic backgrounds.

TABLE 1

Parents As Professional Educators

A comparison was made of the HSTEC Basic Skills achievement of students whose parents were professional educators, including teachers, principals, curriculum specialists, and College of

Relationships Between and Explained Variance for Selected Background, Early Elementary, and Elementary School Variables and

HSTEC Basic Skills Scores

Relationship Explained Background (non-school) Variables with HSTEC Variance Hollinghead Socio-Economic Status - .43• .203 Number of Children in Family - .31b .226 Position (Rank Order) in Family - .20< .241 Families' Median Income, 1970 Census .39 .250 Household Median Income, 1975 Census Update .32 .254

Early Elementary School Variables Student Letter Grade, Reading, Grade 1 .46 .375 Student Letter Grade, Arithmetic, Grade 1 .30 .380 Student Absenteeism, Grade 1 - .19J .380 California Test of Mental Maturily, Grade 2 .72 .512 California Achievement Test, Grade 2 .74 .578

Elementary School Variables Sequentiiil Tests of Educational Progress

Mathematics, Grade 6 .80 .659 Studt!nt Letter Grcides, Reading, Gradt!s 1

through 6 .58 .664 Sequential Tests of Educational Progrt?ss

Rt!ading, Grade 6 .78 .667 Studt!nl Letter Grade, Arithmt!tic, Grades

I through 6 .49 .667 Abst!ntecism, Kindt!rgarten through Grade 6 -.26d .668

•A nt!gative correlation indiccites a positive relationship between HSTEC cind higher SES. bThe nt!gilliVt! corrt!lation indicates the larger tht! number of children in the family, the lower tht! HSTEC score, <Tht! nt!gativc corrclcition indicatt!S that first or second born children in a family tt!nded to score hight!r on HSTEC than other. dTht! negative correlation indicated that studt!nts who were less frt?quently abst!nt tended to score higher on HSTEC than those who wt!re

abst?nt mort! frequently.

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Education staff, with those students whose parents were non-educators. The figures indicated that sample students whose parent or parents were educators achieved higher HSTEC scores. To determine whether these students outperformed students of similar socio-economic status, further analysis was conducted. The results indicated that the children of professional educators did not significantly outperform the children of non·­educators when the occupational and educa-tional levels of the two groups being examined were comparable.

Headstart Program

Fifty-five of the 449 students (12%) in this study had participated in the Headstart Program prior to their kindergarten year. Since most Headstart participants come from lower socio-economic families because of the program's selection criteria, the California Test of Mental Maturity (CTMM), California Achieve­ment Test (CAT) and HSTEC Basic Skills scores of Headstart participants were compared with non­participants who came from families with approxi­mately equivalent Hollingshead socio-economic scores. Non-participants received higher CTMM, CAT and HSTEC Basic Skills scores than Head-start participants, but with the exception of the CTMM means, these differences were not statistically significant.

Important Pearson Product Moment Correlations and a Regression Analysis

Table 1 provides a summary of some important relationships already discussed. These correlations have been divided into three time periods. The first group of relationships might be labelled background or non-school variables since these relationships pertain to matter over which schools exercise no control. The second group of variables includes information about students which would become known to schools by the early elementary grades. The third group of variables includes data which would be available to schools by the conclusion of a student's elementary school years.

To determine the amount of variance explained by the relationships shown in Table 1, a stepwide regression analysis was performed using the same three time periods. This analysis indicates the amount of variance in HSTEC that is associated with each of the fifteen background, early ele­mentary, and elementary variables.

The regression performed here indicates that

schools have access to important and increasingly accurate information for predicting the likelihood of a student's scoring above or below the cutoff score on HSTEC long before grade ten . Twenty-five percent of the variance in HSTEC scores can be accounted for by the student background variables. Fifty-eight percent of the variance in HSTEC scores can be accounted for by combining the background variables with an additional five variables, involving data available to schools by a student's second-grade year. Adding the information for an additional five variables by the end of grade six, two-thirds of the variance in HSTEC scores is explained. Further analysis not displayed here indicated that fifty-six percent of the almost sixty-seven percent variance explained by the fifteen variables could be accounted for by two variables, the California Achievement Test and the California Test of Mental Maturity administered in grade two.

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Socio-Economic Status

More than one quarter of the variance in the Hawaii State Test of Essential Competencies Basic Skills score of sample students in this study can be ex­plained by socio-economic variables over which schools have no control. Students with low HSTEC scores more often than students with high scores resided in poorer homes, in lower income neigh­borhoods, as younger siblings in large families, with parents whose marriages had been disrupted, and/or whose occupational and educational levels were lower.

It seems only reasonable to formalize procedures for identifying these "high-risk" or "high failure rate" students as they enter school and conducting, or at least attempting, an on-going long-range prescriptive program until they are successful in school.

Early Elementary School Variables

Fifty-six percent of the variance in the HSTEC Basic Skills scores of the sample students can be explained by their scores on two tests taken eight years earlier, the California Test of Mental Maturity and the California Achievement Test, both administered in grade two.

In spite of low scores on the CTMM and CAT in grade two, a few "high risk" students went on to successfully pass the HSTEC in grade two. These students need to be identified and a determination made as to what the schools have done, if anything,

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that has resulted in their overcoming a slow start in their early schooling. Student Report Card Grades The relationship between student HSTEC scores and the letter grades given to students by teachers was not as strong as the relationship between HSTEC scores and student standardized test scores, even when the standardized test was given years earlier. In addition, letter grades given to students by elementary school teachers tended to relate to HSTEC scores somewhat better than did the grades to students by secondary school teachers. It app~ars that either elementary school teachers know their students better than secondary school teachers know theirs, or that secondary school teachers are grading their students on the basis of criteria not as well-measured by HSTEC as the criteria used by elementary school teachers.

Assuming that HSTEC does measure com• . petencies that are believed by many to be essential to students, it would be very useful to conduct a study of teacher grading practices, especially those used in the secondary schools.

Student Absenteeism

The relationship between greater studen~ a~sen­teeism and lower HSTEC scores was statistically significant at least at the .m level at each grade level.

Student Retention

Although the number of non-promoted students

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• :· .· ···· I -... . o, ~.

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in this study was very small, making. the results difficult to interpret, there was no evtdence that the retention of student produced, for these students at least, the desired improvement in school achievement.

A substantive study needs to be made of the long-term effects of student retention on students in Hawaii.

Student Records

Student permanent records contained little in the way of program information about st~~en~s, that is, information pertaining to the parhapahon of students in the various programs a school has offered them. It was impossible to rely on the student permanent records, or any other school records, for information concerning past student participation in Title I or TESL pr~grams: No information was available concerning ma1or pro­grams, e.g., Hawaii English Program (HEP) or major English or mathematics texts, used by a student.

It appears that program improvement efforts would be enhanced if better curricular data were maintained in student permanent records.

Richard/ . Port ts £ducalicmal Specialist Ill, Office of l11structumal Serv1as. Hawaii Stale Dc'Partme11t uf £ducatim1. Felnm·~Iy ~ Teacher of £11xlisl1, Secm1dary, i11 tile United Stales, Glla11a and N1xcrw, Mr. Port llas also saved as l11s/ructor, Harvard Graduate SclmDI of Educa/fo11 and 'fracliers Collc•xe, Columbia. His major pmfessiu!1al irr/c•res/ 1$ C11rricu/11m Dc'Velupment and llas co-mlllwrecl a sem'S of texts 011 Teac/1i11x Composiliori .