Open AccessA STUDY OF ACHIEVEMENT IN TWO TYPES OF PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS
Author(s) -
French John W.
Publication year - 1959
Publication title -
ets research bulletin series
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2333-8504
pISSN - 0424-6144
DOI - 10.1002/j.2333-8504.1959.tb00088.x
Subject(s) - mathematics education , trigonometry , student achievement , psychology , academic achievement , pedagogy , mathematics , geometry
In connection with their investigation of the problems of American secondary education, Dr. James B. Conant and the staff of “A Study of the American High School” wanted to obtain objective evidence on the question whether there are comprehensive high schools which do as good a job of teaching as is done by highly reputed college‐oriented schools. Final achievement in trigonometry and physics courses in 13 comprehensive schools and four college‐oriented schools was measured by appropriate Cooperative and College Board tests. Ability was held constant in the analysis by scores on SCAT. A very large overlap in the range of teaching effectiveness, as reflected by these tests, was found for the two types of school. The same kind of overlap persisted when the data were analyzed separately for students at three different levels of ability.