The relationship between small learning communities and student performance as identified by the Academic Excellence Indicator System at Robert E. Lee High School in North East Independent School District, San Antonio, Texas

摘要

The purpose of this research was to investigate the relationship of small learningcommunities (SLCs) and student performance for ninth grade students at Robert E. LeeHigh School in North East Independent School District (NEISD). For this study, studentperformance includes achievement on reading and math Texas Assessment ofKnowledge and Skills (TAKS), attendance rates, and number of dropouts. Researchincluded data for years 2002-2003 through 2005-2006 retrieved from the AcademicExcellence Indicator System (AEIS).An extensive review of the literature revealed support for implementation of theSLCs model for high school reform. Recent research indicates that student performancewill improve if SLCs are fully implemented and supported using a framework, such asOxley's five domains for SLCs.The first two questions of this study addressed reading and math TAKS data byethnic, economically disadvantaged, and special education subpopulations. The thirdquestion in this study addressed attendance rates and dropouts. This study found a significant difference in reading TAKS scores for the ethnicsubpopulations with the implementation of SLCs. Economically disadvantaged students' and special education students' scores also showed significant gains in reading scalescores over the four years of the study.Data from this study revealed that math TAKS scale scores showed a significantincrease in the economically disadvantaged and special education subpopulations afterimplementation of the SLCs. In addition, significance was found in reducing theachievement gap between special education and regular education students on mathTAKS.Attendance rates showed no statistical significance after the implementation ofthe SLCs. An analysis of dropout rates was not possible due to low dropout numbers.The empirical data would not support meaningful analysis.Further investigation is needed to gain a better understanding of the relationshipof SLCs on student performance, especially for African American and Hispanic studentsin math. Additional factors such as degree of implementation and influence of theadministrative leadership needs to be explored.