Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

12-1970

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

Major

Educational Administration and Supervision

Major Professor

Charles M. Achilles

Committee Members

Harry L. Johnson, John R. Ray, Francis M. Trusty

Abstract

This study was to assess Chattanooga Public Schools Follow-Through Program 1967-70 to determine the program's impact as related to the objectives stated in the grant application. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of the Follow-Through Program on the academic achievement of selected pupils from 1967-70. It was a second purpose of this study to evaluate the impact of the Follow-Through Program in relation to nonacademic objectives. The study was restricted to one hundred pupils in the program and a control group of equal size randomly sampled from similar inner-city elementary schools. Four groups of children were included: (1) those pupils having three years of Follow-Through experience; (2) those pupils without Follow-Through experience; (3) those pupils having had Head Start experience and Follow-Through; and (4) those pupils having had no Head Start with Follow-Through experience. For the purpose of this study, the Metropolitan Readiness Test (grade 1) and the California Achievement Test Battery (grades 2 and 3) were used to provide achievement measures on a pre- and posttest design. There were some significant differences among subtest mean scores for pupils with Follow-Through experience and pupils without Follow-Through experience. For example, a significant value of t was found for Follow-Through and non-Follow-Through participants on mean scores of the Arithmetic Fundamentals subtest on the Spring testings of the California Achievement Test. A significant difference was also found on Spring testing means for the Total Arithmetic subtest of the California Achievement Test. The t value was -2.28. The means scores on the Spelling subtest of the Spring testing produced a significant difference value of t as did the Total Language subtest means score and the Total Battery mean score. These values were -2.28, -2.83, and -2,28, respectively, The Word Meaning section of the Metropolitan Readiness Test produced a significant difference value of t for the pupils with Follow-Through experience and pupils without Follow-Through experience. This t value was 3.02. When an analysis was made of the achievement variables for pupils with and without Follow-Through experience holding Head Start experience constant, it was found that certain significant differences did occur. These data show that significantly different mean scores existed on the Spelling subtest of the California Achievement Test for the Spring testings and the Arithmetic Reasoning subtest for the Spring testing. No subtests of the Fall testing of the California Achievement Test produced significantly different mean scores. The Word Meaning subtest of the Metropolitan Readiness test produced a significantly different mean score. The t value was 2.14. There were some significant differences in the achievement on selected subtests of the California Achievement Test and the Metropolitan Readiness Test for non-Head Start pupils with Follow-Through experience and those non-Head Start pupils without Follow-through experience, These data show that significant differences existed in the mean scores of non-Head Start pupils with and without Follow-Through experience on two subtests of the California Achievement Test. These subtests were Total Arithmetic and Spelling. These t-values were -2.13 and -2.10.

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