The relationship between Tennessee middle school students' language arts achievement and State writing assessment scores
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between fifth and eighth grade students' Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) language arts test and their Tennessee State Writing Assessment scores at Pleasant Hill Elementary in Crossville, Tennessee. A significant positive relationship was found between these test scores for both grades. Results indicated that it is very important that students have an understanding of the language arts curriculum in order to perform well on state assessed writing assessments. This study also examined the relationship between the scores on the fifth grade writing assessment and the TCAP language assessment when compared by students' gender. The results showed significant differences in the fifth grade scores when compared by gender; fifth grade females were found to have significantly higher scores than males on both the TCAP and the State Writing Assessment. However, there were no significant differences in the scores between males and females at the eighth grade level. The teachers' affect on the test scores was also examined in this study. It was found that in fifth and eighth grades about half of the teachers at Pleasant Hill Elementary had not received training on the writing assessment. Therefore, those teachers who received training and those who had not were compared using their students' Tennessee State Writing Assessment scores. This comparison showed no significant difference in both fifth and eighth grade scores between teachers who had received training and those who had not received training.
Subject Area
Language arts|Elementary education
Recommended Citation
Jacqueline Renee Smith,
"The relationship between Tennessee middle school students' language arts achievement and State writing assessment scores"
(2011).
ETD Collection for Tennessee State University.
Paper AAI3486992.
https://digitalscholarship.tnstate.edu/dissertations/AAI3486992