Degree Name
EdD (Doctor of Education)
Program
Educational Leadership
Date of Award
5-1981
Committee Chair or Co-Chairs
Floyd Edwards
Committee Members
Gem Kate Greninger, Albert Hauff, Jack Higgs, Robert Shepard
Abstract
The problem was to determine the status of computer-related elective courses in public secondary schools in Tennessee. A descriptive research design was used for this study. A search was made to locate public secondary schools which housed grade twelve and whose curricula were in keeping with State requirements for a diploma. A search of Preliminary Reports was made of identified schools to determine those which offered a computer-related elective course. A questionnaire was sent to teachers of computer-related course electives. The data were examined and presented in narrative form with the use of appropriate tables. The following findings emerged: (1) There were 306 schools in Tennessee in 1979-80 which housed grade twelve and whose curriculum was reflective of State diploma requirements. Twenty-four of these schools (8 percent) offered one or more computer courses. There were twenty-one computer math courses and six computer programming courses. There were thirty-two total class sections of computer-related courses. (2) There were 568 students enrolled in computer-related courses for the first semester of the 1979-80 school year. The average school enrollment was 1254 and the average student-teacher ratio was 1:19.5. The teacher-student ratio in computer-related classes was 1:17.5. (3) There were twenty-seven certified persons teaching computer courses in 1979-80. One held a specialist degree, two held master's plus forty-five hours, fourteen held master's and ten held bachelor's degrees. Twenty-four were endorsed in math, two in science and one in business. Twenty of the twenty-seven held multiple endorsements. (4) The majority of schools awarded both a minimum and a maximum of one-half unit of credit with a range of one-half to two. (5) Computers and terminals were available for student use in computer courses and were primarily housed in the classroom where the course was taught. (6) Software was produced primarily by staff and/or students. (7) No decreases were reported for the 1980-81 offerings of computer-related courses. Increases were reported by less than 25 percent of the respondents in the study. (8) Objectives of computer-related courses were "awareness" and "introductory" in nature. Simple programming was included in schools which offered more than one-half Carnegie unit credit as maximum. (9) In comparison with information gained from opinion survey to forty-nine State Departments of Education, Tennessee ranks in the lower 18 percent of states where less than 10 percent of the secondary schools offer one or more computer-related courses.
Document Type
Dissertation - unrestricted
Recommended Citation
Hickman, Nancy H., "The Status of Computer-Related Elective Courses in Public Secondary Schools in Tennessee" (1981). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 4295. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/4295
Copyright
Copyright by the authors.