A Longitudinal Study of Cognitive Achievement in a Selected Program of Accelerated Christian Education.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to describe the relationship of selected mastery learning variables to overall academic achievement. Research was expected to produce tentative conclusions about patterns of academic growth, their rates and directions, and interrelated factors which affect and explain these patterns. A private K-12 school in southeastern Michigan was chosen for this study because of its rigorous application of mastery learning theory. The study included students who had been enrolled in the mastery system for three or more years. Parental permission slips were obtained for 51 of the students in Grades 4-12 who met this criterion. The followback method, tracked through 30 variables, was used to collect longitudinal information from their intact files. The school sample was stratified into elementary school (Grades 4 and 5), middle school (Grades 6-8), and high school (Grades 9-12). For this sample, eight hypotheses were formulated to explain the relationships between the dependent variable of overall achievement and certain independent variables. The Pearson product-moment correlation and multiple regression were the principal statistical instruments used to find the best predictors of final overall achievement. Two variables from the mastery environment were strong predictors of overall academic achievement. The number of learning packets completed in reading over three years accounted for more than 40% of the differences in reading and language achievement. The number of learning packets completed in arithmetic over three years explained 20% of the differences in arithmetic achievement. Academic achievement was characterized by growth in the first year, slowdown in the second year, and resurgence in the third year. This fluctuation in rate of growth recurred throughout the data. Thus, the mastery environment created a plateau effect in academic growth between high-growth years.