This meta-analytic synthesis of research studies is assembled upon the findings of research conducted within the last 40 years. With the understanding that students spend a considerable amount of time within school buildings, one can hypothesize that the condition of the school building influences student academic achievement. A community of researchers have worked to give credibility to this assumption by providing concrete data in support of this belief, however, some researchers have provided contrary results, thus stalling the progress towards a definitive statement.
This study analyzed and compared 81 studies against a criteria for inclusion. Out of the 81 studies analyzed, 30 studies met the criteria and were included in this meta-analytic synthesis in order to answer two research questions. The two research questions investigated in this study are:
1) What are the characteristics of studies that investigated the relationship between school building condition and student achievement?
2) What does research inform educators about the relationship between the school building condition and student academic achievement?
The studies included in this meta-analytic syntheses are unique in the methods they used to assess school buildings, how they chose to measure student academic achievement, to what level of education was the focus, how large or how small was the student/school population, what statistical measures were used, and what confounding variables were controlled. These specific characteristics were then separated into categories where the findings were reported quantitatively using percentages to draw conclusions.
This study found patterns and trends that are noteworthy to future researchers and educational stakeholders. To a major degree, the assessment instrument used to measure school facilities and the people responsible for completing the assessments are important factors concerning the outcomes of studies. Additionally, the same can be said concerning the size of the student/school population used among studies.
The purpose of this meta-analytic synthesis was to synthesize existing research in order to make a definitive statement on behalf of the research community. Following the completion of this analytic synthesis of studies and data gathering process, this study ultimately found that school facility condition positively influences student academic achievement. / EDD / This dissertation is a collection of findings from 30 studies which were conducted on the topic of school facility condition and student academic achievement. In all, 81 studies were located and were compared against a specific criteria. The 30 studies that met the criteria were: written in English, appeared in published or unpublished form after December 31, 1977, focused on public schools in the United States, and used an assessment instrument or survey to measure the overall condition of school facilities.
The study was driven by two research questions. The first question asked about similarities and differences among the 30 studies that met the criteria. The characteristics which were investigated involved methodologies of studies, the school facility assessment instruments or surveys used, who administered the assessment instruments or surveys used, sizes of study populations, and the confounding variables used by researchers. The second question focused on the relationship between the condition of school facilities and student academic achievement and presents that information to educators.
Findings extracted from all 30 studies were displayed in chart form along with percentages. The patterns and trends reported provides helpful information concerning the relationship between the condition of school facilities and student academic achievement. This study may be helpful to school administrators, school board members, parents, or community members interested in the topic of school facilities.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/89606 |
| Date | 29 November 2017 |
| Creators | Hewitt, Chris Daniel |
| Contributors | Counselor Education, Earthman, Glen I., Pluska, Lisa A., Cash, Carol S., Alexander, Michael D. |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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