Term of Award

Summer 2007

Degree Name

Doctor of Education in Education Administration (Ed.D.)

Document Type and Release Option

Dissertation (open access)

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Department

Department of Leadership, Technology, and Human Development

Committee Chair

Abebayehu Tekleselassie

Committee Member 1

Linda M. Arthur

Committee Member 2

Bettie Pittman

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine differences in Georgia High School Graduation Test scores between students with and without disabilities after the implementation of collaborative instruction. The sample was taken from a rural northeast Georgia county. For the study 81.6% students were white, 14% were African-American, 2.2% were Asian, 1.8% were Hispanic and .4% were multi-ethnic. 53.3% were female and 46.6% were male. 2% were students with disabilities. The scores from 457 students each year were statistically analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-tests and Chi square. To determine the differences between Georgia High School Graduation Test scores before the implementation of collaborative instruction data from 2003 were analyzed. Collaborative instruction was implemented in the fall of 2004. Scores from 2005 and 2006 represent after the implementation of collaborative instruction. The differences between potential predictors were also analyzed. The researcher found that the differences between potential predictors were statistically significant for all subtest scores except language arts for 2006. The achievement gap, between students with disabilities and without disabilities that was significant in 2003, was not statistically significant in 2006. The researcher found statistically significant differences in the mean subtest scores when comparing the two groups in 2003 by disability status. The differences in scores when compared by ethnicity and by disability status were significant for students without disabilities but the differences were not significant for students with disabilities. The differences in scores were statistically significant for both groups when compared by disability status and by gender. The before and after analysis over time determined that the gap in academic achievement was closing significantly for language arts and social studies and closing slightly on the science subtest. The mean difference for math scores did not reduce from 2003 to 2006. Therefore there was no reduction in the achievement gap on the math subtest scores. This expost-facto causal comparative study is among few others that address the effect of collaborative instruction on academic achievement. The researcher determined that students achieve higher scores on the GHSGT after they experience a collaborative instruction service delivery model.

Research Data and Supplementary Material

No

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