| Robert C. Nichols
State University of New York-Buffalo
Policies and practices related to achievement
FINAL REPORT:
Preliminary analyses of the High School and Beyond (HS&B) tests have yielded adequately reliable measures of the general factor underlying all tests and a factor specific to each content area. It seems likely that similar measures can be developed for the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88) tests. The relationship of these achievement measures to student background characteristics (such as gender, race, and socioeconomic status) will be studied. With background controlled, the relationship of general and specific achievement to a variety of student variables will be studied in both the HS&B and NELS:88 data sets. Student variables will include possible influences on achievement (such as parental involvement and school experiences), concomitant correlates (such as grades and aspirations), and possible outcomes (such as post-secondary activities). The achievement measures, with student-level background variables controlled, will be aggregated to the school level for studies of the school context in which achievement occurs. Analyses at the school level will be concerned with the degree to which achievement in the various content areas is clustered within schools and with the school policies and practices that are related to the means and variances of student achievement.
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