The effect of learning packages on the continuous progress education pilot program in the Kanawha County, West Virginia, schools

The purpose of this study was to obtain information about the continuous progress education programs in reading in the pilot and non-pilot elementary schools in Kanawha County, West Virginia, using selected fourth-grade students as the population sample, in order to provide a basis for making judgments about the programs. The difference between the programs was that locally-developed learning packages were made available to the teachers in the pilot schools but not to the other teachers. The assumption of the Kanawha County school officials was that the"achievement of children in classrooms where these learning packages are used will be significantly greater than the educational attainment of children in … classrooms" in which the learning packages are not utilized.

A crossbreak of twelve cells was established in which the three major variables were treatment (pilot and non-pilot), school SES level (higher and lower), and reading achievement levels (high, middle, and low local stanine groups from scores on the EDS Reading pre-test). The sample was comprised of 221 students selected randomly from the available population.

Achievement data were obtained by administering pre-tests and post-tests using two instruments, one a standardized norm-referenced-type test (the STS Educational Development Series' Reading test) and · the other a locally-developed criterion-referenced-type test (the diagnostic placement test). Data was also obtained regarding the instructional situation. Based on the various benefits and characteristics of continuous progress education identified in the literature, a questionnaire for teachers was prepared which was designed to assess the extent to which these benefits and characteristics occurred and were evident. The questionnaire was administered to the teachers of the students in the sample, permitting a comparison of the teacher responses with the achievements of each teacher's students.

On the basis of the data obtained and the subsequent analyses (including MANOVA and factor analysis), it was concluded that students in the pilot schools did not, generally speaking, achieve better in reading than the students in the non-pilot schools at a level that was statistically significant. The exceptions occurred in one of six comparisons made of comparable pilot and non-pilot cells in the crossbreak model as measured by the criterion-referenced-type test and in two of the six similar comparisons made as measured by the norm-referenced-type test. The first exception reflected the very superior performance of the low stanine, lower school SES students in the pilot schools as compared with their counterparts in the non-pilot schools. The second two exceptions reflected the superior performance of the pilot school students in both high stanine group level cells (both the lower and higher school SES levels). In no instance of comparison did students in non-pilot school cells achieve better than their counterparts at a level that was statistically significant.

No significant relationship was found between student achievement and teacher attitudes regarding continuous progress education or to operational characteristics of the program except in one instance, classroom grouping arrangement, favoring heterogeneous grouping.