Tag: Academic Achievement

Thorton, 2006

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between building conditions and student achievement of students identified in the subgroups of poverty and minority in high schools in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The targeted population was identified by using the study conducted by Crook (2006) which included information obtained from seventy-two high schools across the Commonwealth of Virginia. Building conditions used in the study were based upon the responses received from principals on the Commonwealth Assessment of Physical Environment (CAPE) form.

The scaled scores of economically disadvantaged students and minority students on the Standards of Learning tests administered in grades nine through eleven during the 2004-2005 school year were used to measure student achievement. The status of economically disadvantaged students was controlled by the classification of a student receiving free and reduced-priced lunch during the 2004-2005 school year. The status of minority students was controlled by ethnicity as reported by the individual schools to the Virginia Department of Education for the 2004-2005 school year.

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Lanham, J., 1999

Across the country, increased accountability for public education has emerged over the last decade as a central theme in both the educational and political arenas. Calls for higher standards of learning, more rigorous testing of the country’s school children, and greater degrees of accountability for both teachers and administrators have been heard from the White House, Congress, governors’ mansions, and state legislatures. In his 1998 State of the Union address, President Bill Clinton expressed his desire to raise standards, expectations, and accountability in the nation’s elementary and secondary schools. At the same time, political leaders and public bodies have also focused on our nation’s crumbling infrastructure, particularly the sorry state of many of the nation’s schools. Members of Congress have requested extensive reports from the General Accounting Office to document the state of the nation’s school facilities.

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Lair, 2003

The purpose of this study was to explore the effect school facilities have on student achievement as measured by the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills, TAAS, test in a high-performing, high-poverty school district in Texas. A relationship between the condition of school facilities and student achievement, while assumed, is difficult to assess. This study contains a presentation of the information and data findings from the Ysleta Independent School District and its decision in 1994 to include school facilities as a component of its student achievement initiative. The schools were randomly selected and the case study ix research was conducted using a mixed-method approach. Data provided by the schools’ principals on building structure, maintenance, and housekeeping were collected using a questionnaire based in part on the “Commonwealth Assessment of Physical Environment” used by Cash (1993), Hines (1996) and Lanham (1999) in Virginia. Student achievement was measured using the percent of students at each school passing the TAAS sub-tests of reading, mathematics, and writing and the percent passing all the TAAS tests from 1994 to 2001. The effect school facility conditions have on student achievement found definition through the major themes of risky decisions, powerful people, buildings matter and accountability.

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