An Investigation of Assessment, Equal Opportunity, and Educational Equity in Conservative Evangelical Schools

The purpose for this ex post facto, causal comparative study was to use a three-tiered investigation; each tier was related to the investigation of equity and student achievement. Based on the literature, there is little to no research about the relationship between equity in conservative Evangelical Christian schools and student achievement. The data used in this study was drawn from conservative Evangelical schools. The research focus was on schools which are members of the Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI) in the Mid-America/Ohio River Valley Region. The participant schools were divided into different tiers and categories, in accordance with the size, tuition, and location. With use of the variables of location, school size, and cost per student, an ANOVA was used to analyze student achievement solely in ACSI member schools. Three separate ANOVAs were used to analyze the data for each part of the study. The first ANOVA was used to analyze student achievement in ACSI schools with regard to location; the second ANOVA was used to analyze student achievement in ACSI schools with regard to tuition; and the final ANOVA was used to analyze student achievement in ACSI schools with regard to enrollment size. The instrument used for measuring student achievement in this study was the Terra Nova Test (3rd Edition) for ACSI schools