EFFECT OF GRADE STRUCTURE ON READING ACHIEVEMENT (ELEMENTARY, JUNIOR HIGH, MIDDLE SCHOOL)

The purpose of this ex post facto study was to determine whether the organizational grade structure of the schools has an effect on seventh-grade students\u27 reading achievement. The grade equivalent test scores of 860 seventh graders on the Vocabulary and Comprehension sections of the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills provided the data for testing the hypotheses of this study. The subjects were selected from three different schools in a medium-sized school district in the state of Indiana. They were divided into two groups--those who attended sixth grade in elementary school buildings and those, who as sixth graders, attended junior high/middle schools. Seven hypotheses were developed and tested with ANOVA analyses to determine the relationship between the dependent variable, reading achievement (defined as test scores on the Vocabulary and Comprehension sections of the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills), and the independent variables of school, grade structure, and sex. Grade structure and sex were found to be significant on Comprehension scores, but none of the independent variables were found significant on Vocabulary scores. An analysis of covariance, using the sixth-grade scores as the covariant, was also performed. On both Vocabulary and Comprehension, the covariant (sixth-grade scores) was highly significant. Three important findings emerged from this study. First, students\u27 sixth grade scores on the Vocabulary and Comprehension subtests of the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills were highly predictive of their performance on the same subtests during the seventh grade. Second, grade structure made a significant difference on Comprehension scores with students who attended elementary sixth grade scoring higher than those who attended junior high/middle school sixth grade. Third, females scored higher than males on the Comprehension but not on the Vocabulary measure of reading achievement