Personalized System of Instruction and Student Performance in High School Weight Training Courses

School reform has applied pressure on the United States public school systems to improve student achievement. As a result of this pressure, educators are seeking instructional models that research supports improves student achievement. The purpose of this causal comparative study was to test the Social Cognitive Theory by comparing the achievement of all-male high school weight training students who had been taught using the personalized system of instruction (PSI) instructional model to students who had not been taught using the PSI instructional model on the state mandated Fitnessgram assessments, after controlling for prior Fitnessgram achievement within a large, urban high school in northeast Georgia. Archival Fitnessgram pretest and posttest data was collected on a total of 206 students, of which 103 having been taught by teachers using the PSI instructional model and 103 having been taught without the PSI instructional model. The data collected was then analyzed by ANCOVA to determine the possible effect of instructional model on student achievement on the Fitnessgram PACER, ninety degree push-up, and curl-up assessments, after controlling for prior Fitnessgram achievement as measured by the Fitnessgram pretest scores. The data revealed no statistically significant difference in student achievement between the groups on any of the Fitnessgram assessments and each of the null hypotheses were not rejected. Suggestions for further research are included