Integrated Language Arts : A Study of the Achievement of Sixth Grade Students in an Integrated Language Arts Program

The purpose of the researcher was to investigate the achievement of sixth grade students in an integrated language arts curriculum. The sample was from 2 schools in Southwestern Kansas. The sample consisted of 228 students. The treatment group (received integrated approach of language arts instruction) consisted of 128 students, and the control group (received traditional approach of language arts instruction) consisted of 100 students. The independent variables were approach to instruction, gender, socioeconomic status, and race. The dependent variables were scores from the following scales of the California Achievement Test, Fifth Edition: Vocabulary, Reading Comprehension, Spelling, Language Mechanics, Language Expression, Reading Total, and Language Total. Four composite null hypotheses were tested at the .05 level of significance employing a single-factor analysis of covariance. A total of 28 comparisons were made. Of the 28 comparisons, 13 were statistically detectable at the .05 level. The results of the study appeared to support the following generalizations: 1. The integrated approach of language arts instruction yields higher achievement in Reading Comprehension, 2. The integrated approach of language arts instruction yields higher achievement in Spelling, 3. The integrated approach of language arts instruction yields higher achievement in Language Mechanics, 4. The integrated approach of language arts instruction yields higher achievement in Language Expression, 5. The integrated approach of language arts instruction yields higher achievement in Reading Total, 6. The integrated approach of language arts instruction yields higher achievement in Language Total, 7. The integrated approach of language arts instruction yields higher achievement for females in Reading Comprehension, 8. The integrated approach of language arts instruction yields higher achievement for females in language Mechanics, 9. The integrated approach of language arts instruction yields higher achievement for students who pay full lunch price in Vocabulary, 10. The integrated approach of language arts instruction yields higher achievement for Caucasian students in Vocabulary, 11. The integrated approach of language arts instruction yields higher achievement for Caucasian students than Hispanic students in Spelling, 12. The integrated approach of language arts instruction yields higher achievement for Caucasian students than Hispanic students in Language Mechanics, and 13. The integrated approach of language arts instruction yields higher achievement for Caucasian students than Hispanic students in Language Total