A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF MULTI-ROOM SCHOOLS WITH ONE-ROOM SCHOOLS IN THE MID-AMERICA UNION CONFERENCE OF SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISTS (SELF-ESTEEM, SELF-CONCEPT, ACHIEVEMENT, ATTENDANCE)

This study compares Seventh-day Adventist elementary one-room schools to Seventh-day Adventist multi-room schools of Colorado, Kansas, and Nebraska in terms of student attendance, self-concept, and achievement. Its purpose was to identify areas of both congruence and difference in students who attend these two types of schools. Methodology. Thirty-seven one-room schools, representing one hundred sixty-three students in grades four, six, and eight made up the one-room school population. One-hundred twenty-two students from the only two multi-room schools (one grade per classroom) comprised the multi-room school population. The teachers\u27 Daily Registers were analyzed for collection of attendance data regarding tardies and absenteeism. Dr. Ira Gordon\u27s How I See Myself Scale, a student self-report, provided a total self-concept score plus five subscales (teacher-school, physical appearance, interpersonal adequacy, autonomy, and academic adequacy). Students were also tested on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills by total composite score and five subscales (vocabulary, reading, language, work-study, and mathematics) for comparison. Data Analysis and Findings. An ANOVA was conducted on tardies and absences. One-room schools had significantly more tardies and absences than multi-room Seventh-day Adventist schools. The dependent variable self-concept was submitted to an ANOVA with the same three independent variables: grade, type of school, and sex. A significant two-way interaction was found involving grade and school. At grade four, multi-room school students had higher self-esteem; and at grades six and eight, one-room school students had higher self-esteem. Achievement composite and its five subscales were also submitted to an ANOVA. Multi-room schools were found to have significantly higher scores than one-room schools. A Pearson Correlation Coefficient measure was used on the three areas being examined (attendance, achievement, and self-concept). A small but significant relationship was found between self-concept and academic achievement