Theses and Dissertations

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Williams, Frankie K.

Committee Member

Jayroe, Teresa B.

Committee Member

Morse, David T.

Committee Member

Blendinger, Jack G.

Date of Degree

5-17-2014

Document Type

Dissertation - Open Access

Major

Elementary, Middle, and Secondary Education Administration

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

College

College of Education

Department

Department of Leadership and Foundations

Abstract

Since the enactment of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, students who failed to demonstrate proficiency on state assessments were identified and targeted in order to receive interventions to assist in increasing their academic achievement. For many students, time during the regular school day simply could not be provided for the attention or time on-task necessary to meet their needs. As a result, many school districts and schools implemented after-school and tutoring programs to target those students who failed to demonstrate proficiency. Louisville Municipal School District (LMSD) operated an after-school program to help increase the academic achievement of 5th through 8th grade students in reading/language and mathematics on the MCT2. The purpose of this study was to (a) explore the impact the after-school program’s strategic components (leadership, activities, and partnerships) had on student achievement, and (b) determine if the after-school program had a positive effect on academic outcomes in the areas of reading/language and mathematics. A mixed method research design was used to conduct the study. A narrative approach was used to provide a response to the first research question. The Chi-squared test of independence was used as the primary means of analysis for the second and third research questions to determine if relationship existed between participation in the after-school program and academic achievement. The results from the research study show that strategic components of an after-school program had a positive impact on student achievement. Emerging themes were identified for each strategic component: leadership, activities, and partnerships. Participation in the after-school program proved to be a good predictor of student achievement on MCT2, with statistically significant Chi-squared results for reading/language. The recommendations for future research are as follows: (a) further research to improve reading/language and mathematics skills among the nation’s students, (b) longitudinal studies to determine long term effects on students attending after-school programs multiple years, (c) study of effects of after-school programs on other grade levels, and (d) including outcomes of other variables such as after-school participation on school attendance, behavior, and classroom grades.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11668/17957

Comments

student achievement||student participation||after-school programs||structural components

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