An analysis of academic achievement trends for Anglo-American, Mexican-American, and Negro-American students in a desegregated school environment

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the academic performance of Anglo-American, Mexican-American, and Negro-American students is affected by being involved in a desegregated school setting. An analysis was made of the longitudinal effects that a desegregated school setting in a large, urban school district had on the academic achievement of these three ethnic groups, as compared to the academic achievement of students who were enrolled in a segregated school setting in a large, urban school district. Procedures. The design for the study and the analyses of the data was that of a quasi-experimental, time-series format, with two component groups of subjects, Group I and Group II. The Group I component contained a total of 1200 subjects, selected in such a manner that each subject was used only in one, one-year interval of the study. Group II made use of the same subjects and their scores for each of the six, one-year intervals of the study. Both Group I and the Group II component subjects were selected through cluster and random sampling techniques for use in the collection of data from the three ethnic groups. All subjects were administered an achievement test at Grade 3 through Grade 8. The Iowa Test of Basic Skills, Form 3 and Form 4, Multi-level Edition were administered to students in Grades 3, 4, 5, 6, and 8. The testing began in the Spring of the 1965-1966 school year for Grade 3, with subsequent administration annually in the Spring of each year of the study: 1967, 1968, and 1969. The last administration was to the Grade 8 sample in the Fall of the 1970-1971 school year, which reflects the academic achievement at Grade 7. A four dimensional factorial analysis of variance was used to analyze the independent and interactive independent variable effects that (1) race, (2) sex, (3) years, and (4) segregated/desegregated treatment had on each of the four dependent variables: vocabulary, reading, arithmetic concepts, and total basic skill achievement. [...]