Degree Name

EdD (Doctor of Education)

Program

Educational Leadership

Date of Award

12-2014

Committee Chair or Co-Chairs

Donald Good

Committee Members

John Boyd, Virginia Foley, Ryan Nivens

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a significant relationship between the academic achievement as measured by ACT English, math, and composite scores of students who took 6 or more credits of weightlifting, 6 or more credits of performing arts, or no elective focus in an East Tennessee high school serving grades 9-12 from the graduating classes of 2010 through 2014. The independent variables were the elective focus groups students took during high school and race and ethnicity. The dependent variables were ACT English, math, and composite scores. A series of one-way analyses of variances (ANOVAs) were performed to examine the differences in the mean ACT scores for the students taking 6 or more credits of weightlifting, 6 or more credits of performing arts, or no elective focus. Significant differences were found between the ACT English, math, and composite scores for students taking 6 or more credits of performing arts and no elective focus and students taking 6 or more credits or weightlifting and no elective focus. There was not a significant difference between the students taking 6 or more credits of weightlifting and 6 or more credits of performing arts. Based upon the findings of the study students taking 6 or more credits of performing arts had significantly higher ACT English, math, and composite scores than students with a weightlifting focus or no elective focus.

Two-way analyses of variance were also performed to study the relationships between the academic performance as measured by ACT English, math, and composite scores of White and non-White students. White students performed significantly higher than non-White students on ACT English, math, and composite scores. There was no significant interaction between race and ethnicity and elective focus groups; however, there were significant main effects in race and ethnicity and elective focus groups. There were significant differences in the ACT math and composite scores between the weightlifting and performing arts groups as well as performing arts and no elective focus area. There was not a significant difference between the weightlifting and no elective focus. There were significant differences between all pairs of groups for ACT English. The performing arts focus group scored significantly higher than the other groups on all 3 ACT subtests.

Document Type

Dissertation - unrestricted

Copyright

Copyright by the authors.

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