The relationship between attitudes toward school and academic achievement of fourth- fifth- and sixth-grade Mexican American pupils attending schools in areas of different levels of economic affluence

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1973

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Abstract

Purpose of the Study The purposes of this study were, first, to investigate the degree of relationship between the Mexican American pupils' attitudes toward the school attended and the level of academic achievement, and second, to investigate whether Mexican American pupils attached different meanings (attitudes) to school-related concepts when grouped according to socioeconomic level, sex, and grade level. Procedure and Source of Data A version of the Semantic Differential (SD) was used to sample attitudes of 418 Mexican American children in the fourth- fifth- and sixth-grades of two public elementary schools in Corpus Christi, Texas. Using selected socioeconomic indicators, one school was designated a low Socioeconomic Status (SES) school, while a comparison school was selected to represent a middle Socioeconomic Status (SES) school. The Science Research Associates (SRA) Achievement Series was used to measure academic achievement. The attitude instrument consisted of nine stimulus phrases and sixteen bipolar adjective scales. The responses, pooled over stimulus phrases, were subjected to a principal-component factor analysis. Two factors, named evaluative and dynamism, were extracted from the data matrices of the two schools. Factor scores were obtained for each subject on the two factors. Eighteen respondents were chosen at random by grade and sex from each school to comprise a total of 216 subjects that were used in the testing of the eight hypotheses in the study. Results of the Study The results, significant at the .05 level, indicated that for Mexican American pupils on Factor I, evaluative: (a) A negative relationship was found between Factor I and the SRA reading subtest for pupils in the middle SES school. A positive relationship was found between Factor I and the SRA language arts and reading subtests for pupils in the low SES school, (b) Pupils in grade four had higher scores on the SD than did pupils in grade five and grade six, (c) Females had higher scores on the SD than did males, (d) Fifth-grade pupils in the low SES school were significantly lower in their marking of the SD than four of the five remaining interactions, and (e) Fourth-grade girls from the middle SES school were significantly higher in their marking of the SD than ten of the eleven remaining interactions. Further, fifth-grade boys from the low SES school were significantly lower in their marking of the SD than ten of the eleven remaining interactions. The results indicated that for Mexican American pupils on Factor II, dynamism: (a) Pupils in the low SES school had higher scores on the SD than did pupils from the middle SES school, (b) Pupils in grade six had lower scores on the SD than pupils in grade four and grade five, and (c) Sixth-grade male pupils were significantly lower in their marking of the SD than fourth- and fifth-grade males and fifth-grade females. Conclusions It was concluded that Mexican American students' perceptions of school, and various aspects of school, were related to achievement as measured by standardized achievement tests. Comparisons between the two schools indicated that Mexican American pupils in a middle SES school did not perceive school-related concepts more positively than did Mexican American pupils in a low SES school. The data in this study suggested that change in attitude toward school-related concepts appeared to be a function of grade level. Mexican American females viewed school-related concepts more positively than did Mexican American males. Recommendations It was recommended that an investigation be made of the effect of special programs, i.e.. Head Start, bilingual, and Follow-Through, concerning the attitudes toward school of Mexican American pupils. Because of differences in program emphasis, a study should be made of the affective components that may or may not be part of these programs. Research should be conducted into methods of teaching and their effect on attitudes. A study should be made of attitudes of the pupil as influenced by the motivational patterns of the family and of attitudes of the pupil as a function of ethnic groups. Follow-up research should be carried on to determine if students continue to be increasingly negative in their responses to self-report instruments. It was further recommended that school districts consider the Semantic Differential technique as a method of evaluation of pupils' attitudes in the elementary grades. It appeared that the Semantic Differential technique could be very useful in evaluation of the affective component of compensatory educational programs.

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