The Influence of English Language Arts Instructional Minutes on Student Achievement in Grades 6, 7, & 8

The purpose of this quantitative, non-experimental study was to examine if a relationship existed between allocated English Language Arts (ELA) instructional minutes within a school’s bell schedule for Grades 6, 7, and 8 and its corresponding mean PARCC score for that grade. Furthermore, the study also sought to detect the presence of an interaction effect regarding time, socioeconomic status, and student performance. The study controlled for other student, faculty, and school variables as well. Data for ELA instructional time were obtained from school personnel and also through school websites. Additional variable were obtained through the New Jersey School Performance Reports for schools in the sample. Using multiple regression for both research questions, several independent variables were found to be statistically significant predictors. Allocated ELA minutes were found to be statistically significant on both sixth and eighth grades, however the unstandardized betas were very small and negative. Additional variables were found to be statistically significant predictors in one of the focus grades: percentage of students with disabilities (sixth grade), percentage of chronic absentees (seventh grade), and percentage of economically disadvantaged students (eighth grade). The study was unable to detect the presence of an interaction effect between time, student achievement, and socioeconomic status