Publication Date

1966

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

First Advisor

Grant, Eugene B.||Burnett, Richard W.

Degree Name

M.S. Ed. (Master of Education)

Legacy Department

Department of Education

LCSH

Ability grouping in education; Reading (Secondary)

Abstract

Introduction: The ungraded primary school is a relatively new concept in educational design. It evolves iron the heed to better group children to met their individual educational needs. The ungraded primary school most often revolves its grouping around reading since reading is one of the skills of greatest importance in the primary years. After this grouping has been established, the ungraded program may or may not expand into the other curriculum areas. The Purpose of the Study: The purpose of this study is to find out if any significant difference can be found between the average achievement in reading of second graders in a graded school and children in their second year past kindergarten in an ungraded school. The children in the graded stood and the children in the ungraded stood were equated in intelligence within five points on the intelligence scale. These two schools were matched as closely as possible according to socio-economic backgrounds, but the graded school was judged to have a slightly higher socio-economic background than the ungraded school. The Procedures used in the Study: The Metropolitan Achievement Test, Form B, was administered to both groups in May, 1965, by the respective teachers. Although the Metropolitan Achievement Test determines scores in five areas; only the three areas of reading, word discrimination, and word knowledge were used in the study. The intelligence scores were obtained from tests administered by the classroom teachers in October, 1963, when these children were either in first Grade or in their first year past kindergarten. The children in the graded school showed a slightly higher mean intelligence score than the children in the ungraded school, but this difference in intelligence is thought to be so small, that it should have no real effect on the results of this study. The mean achievement scores for the Metropolitan Achievement Test, Form B, were obtained. The mean intelligence quotient for both groups was obtained from the SEA Test of Primary Mental Abilities administered in October, 1963. The Results and Conclusions of the Study: The ungraded group did score slightly higher in mean achievement in the area of reading on the Metropolitan Achievement Test, Form B. The difference, however, was not significant. The graded group scored higher in mean achievement in the areas at word discrimination and word knowledge. Again the difference was not significant. The study did not show that the organisational structure of the ungraded program produced significant achievement differences over the graded program.

Comments

Includes bibliographical references.

Extent

iii, 31 pages

Language

eng

Publisher

Northern Illinois University

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Rights Statement 2

NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.

Media Type

Text

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