A Comparative Analysis of Supplemental Education Services on Academic Outcomes in Five Large Washington School Districts

This study compared two groups of Title I schools to determine the impact on student achievement when given the opportunity to receive supplemental educational services. Two groups of schools from the five school districts were selected for this study. The study employed a causal-comparative design using post hoc data from two administrations of the Washington Measurement of Student Progress assessment in Reading and Mathematics. The selected two groups of Title I schools, consisted of the participating Title I schools (those schools receiving SES support), and the non-participating Title I schools (those schools not receiving SES support). To provide descriptive information on the key variables as well as to determine whether or not the schools were comparable, a series of independent samples t-test and Pearson correlations were conducted. To address the research questions, a series of hierarchical regressions were utilized to analyze the differences in student achievement among Title I schools, including their subgroups. The variables grade level, gender, ethnicity and socio-economic status and SES status were compared across schools. The independent and dependent variables were measured by using the Grade 3-5 Reading and Mathematics school aggregate data derived from the Measurement of Student Progress (MSP). In terms of supplemental educational services, SES status, the results indicated that the addition of SES status was an influence on school performance on only three of the sixteen hierarchical multiple regression models, consisting of academic outcomes: 2011 Grade 5 female math scores, 2011 Grade 3 low income math scores, and 2011 Grade 5 low income reading scores. Each of the three were negative predictors where the betas were negative, meaning that the Title I schools that did not receive supplemental educational services outperformed the Title I Schools that did receive supplemental educational services