The purpose of the study was to determine the effects of Assertive Discipline on Title I students in the areas of reading and mathematics achievement. Specifically, the study was designed to determine whether application of the systematic program components developed by Canter would result in statistically significant improvement in achievement in reading and mathematics.Conceptual and empirical literature relating classroom management and academic achievement was reviewed. Based upon the evidence, a study to investigate the effectiveness of the Assertive Discipline model was undertaken.Fifth and sixth grade students enrolled in the seven Title I programs in East Allen County schools during the 1979-80 school year comprised the population from which the sample was drawn. Teachers of Title I students at schools containing four of the Title I programs included Assertive Discipline as part of the Title I offerings for fifth and sixth grade students. Teachers of Title I students at schools containing the remaining three programs used an undifferentiated approach to behavior management with fifth and sixth grade students.The 1971 Metropolitan Achievement Tests, Elementary Reading and Mathematics, form H, were administered to the subjects in April 1979 and in April 1980. The eighty-three students both pretested and posttested were the subjects for the study. The experimental group consisted of forty-nine subjects. Thirty-one experimental subjects were in grade five; eighteen were in grade six. The control group consisted of thirty-four subjects . Twenty-three, control subjects were in grade five; eleven were in grade six. Of the total experimental group, thirty-five subjects were male, and fourteen subjects were female. The control contained twenty-two male and twelve female subjects.One null hypothesis and two alternative hypotheses were tested to determine the degree to which Assertive Discipline affected achievement in reading and mathematics. Pretest and posttest data were analyzed for experimental and control groups and for subgroups based upon grade and sex. An analysis of covariance, with pretest means as co-variates, was used to control for selection biac attendant to non-randomization. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences was the set of computer programs utilized to perform the statistical analysis of the data.Based upon the results of univariate and multivariate tests of equality of mean vectors for experimental and control subjects:1. Differences noted when mean group scores were compared were not significant atthe .05 level of confidence.2. Differences noted when mean scores were compared by grade were not significantat the .05 level of confidence.3. Differences noted when mean. scores were compared by sex were not significant atthe .05 level of confidence.The null hypothesis was held as tenable. A statistically significant difference in reading and mathematics achievement did not exist between fifth and sixth grade Title I students for which the program included Assertive Discipline as a condition of the Title I experience and fifth and sixth. grade students for which Assertive Discipline was not a part of the Title I experience.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:handle/180688 |
| Date | January 1980 |
| Creators | Sharpe, Audrey Howell |
| Contributors | Ballou, Philip E. |
| Source Sets | Ball State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | 4, viii, 117 leaves : ill. ; 28 cm. |
| Source | Virtual Press |
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