Identifier

etd-07012010-170704

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Human Resource Education and Workforce Development

Document Type

Dissertation

Abstract

The importance of academic courses taken during high school has been well documented. It could determine the students’ achievement in high school, affect the students’ ability to transition to postsecondary education and expand the students’ choice of postsecondary majors and degree options (Laird, Chen, & Levesque, 2006). This study examined whether enrollment in business education is related to achievements in high school core subjects. The rationale for the study is to determine if business education contributes to the academic achievement of high school students. This study used the data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) High School Transcript Study (HSTS) collected in 2005. Nationally representative samples of over 26,000 public and private school students were assessed. The study described the graduating high school students by age, gender, ethnicity, the highest level of parental education, public or private school students, and whether or not they are business education students. The study also described the performance of the students on the mathematics, English, social studies, and science as measured by their GPAs in these respective subjects. The study compared academic achievement of business education students with that of non business education students in these core subjects. The study determined if differences exist in student academic achievement based on students’ personal demographic characteristics. These comparisons revealed that although there were statistically significant differences in GPA scores in all core subjects, the effect size of each of these areas was either small or moderate. Several selected variables explained statistically significant portions of the variance in high school student achievement as measured by GPA scores in the mathematics, English, social studies, and science. These variables were age, gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, public or private school status and business or non business education status. Demographic factors played important role in determining students’ academic achievement. The multiple regression models had either small or moderate effect sizes. Overall, non business education students had a statistically significant superior academic achievement than business education students’ academic achievement. However, the statistically significant differences only translated into small effect sizes.

Date

2010

Document Availability at the Time of Submission

Release the entire work immediately for access worldwide.

Committee Chair

Machtmes, Krisanna

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_dissertations.1236

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