Date of Award
9-16-2017
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Educational Leadership, Ed.D.
First Advisor
Steve Bounds
Committee Members
Jackie McBride; Joseph Nichols
Call Number
LD 251 .A566d 2017 G74
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the diversity trends in enrollment and identify 5th grade achievement patterns within selected Arkansas elementary magnet schools. The examination of enrollment data offered an insightful depiction of trends involving diversity in the magnet schools from 2008 to 2015. A secondary purpose of the study was to analyze trends in the achievement of Arkansas magnet and non-magnet schools’ 5th grade students on the Benchmark literacy, math, and science assessments from 2010 to 2014. Data was obtained from the Arkansas Department of Education (ADE) data center and the Arkansased.gov website, a centralized data center used to archive essential data on all Arkansas schools. The enrollment data was analyzed using Pearson Correlation between the school’s total enrollment, gender, race, and socio-economic/SES. The study used an independent t-test between group means analyzing the Benchmark proficient and advanced performance by gender, race, and SES. The findings in the study were supportive of the Dillon (2009) research, which suggested school districts that specialized in the magnet school concept saw racial, socio- economic, and gender inequalities reflected in their enrollment. The analysis revealed moderate to strong correlations between the Arkansas magnet schools’ total enrollment, gender, race, and SES from 2008 to 2015. The results of the t-test revealed that Arkansas non-magnets gender, race, and SES Benchmark proficient and advanced mean scores in literacy, math, and science were significantly higher than Arkansas magnet schools from 2010 to 2015. More specifically, the findings indicated that Arkansas magnet schools have little effect on desegregation and achievement for those districts implementing elementary magnet programs.
Rights Management
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Greer, Rickey, "Diversity From Within: An Analysis of Arkansas Magnet Schools Impact on Desegregation and Academic Achievement" (2017). Student Theses and Dissertations. 566.
https://arch.astate.edu/all-etd/566
