Elementary Classroom Organization Delivery Model and Its Effect on Student Achievement

Abstract

The education spectrum includes many different modes of instruction or organizational models. The following are examples of organizational models available to school leaders: self-contained, departmentalized, team-teaching, collaboration, changing classes, and rotating classes. In this spectrum, the self-contained classroom and the departmentalized classroom are the most frequently used organizational models. The self-contained classroom involves one teacher instructing a group of students in all academic subjects. In contrast, the departmentalized classroom is a setting where educators teach in one area of specialization and students move from one classroom to another for instruction. When considering effective organizational models, it is imperative for administrators to pay attention not only to the quality and content of a lesson but also to the organizational structure in which the instruction is presented. This study included 94 schools using either a self-contained or a departmentalized classroom organization model. The purpose of the study was to identify the organizational model, either departmentalized or self-contained, that had a significant difference in measures of students' academic performance on reading and mathematics VSL pass rates for fourth graders in Region II of Virginia. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to test the hypothesis and results revealed that there is no evidence of a significant difference between the two classroom organizational models on either reading or math VSL test pass rates for fourth graders. The findings suggest that no significant differences in reading and math VSL pass rates existed among schools with the two different classroom organizational models. Controlling for school size and the presence or absence of school Title I status (40% or more of its students come from families who qualify as low income under U.S. Census definitions) did not have an effect on the comparison related to fourth-grade general education students' pass rates on the 2009–2010 school year reading and math VSL pass rates.