Midterm grade reports: Are they effective?
Abstract
This research explores the use of midterm grade reports in the Developmental Studies Math classes at Middle Tennessee State University during the spring, summer, and fall semesters of 1996. Twenty sections of DSM classes were used; ten in the experimental group and ten in the control group. The experimental group in which students received midterm grade reports consisted of five Elementary Algebra classes and five Intermediate Algebra classes. The control group in which students did not receive midterm grade reports consisted of the same type of classes. A total of 359 students were involved. The researcher gathered data from the twenty classes in the sample population in the form of gradebooks or spreadsheets used by each instructor. She used spreadsheets to calculate the midterm averages for the classes that did not receive midterm grade reports by the same manner in which she had calculated midterm averages for the classes that did receive midterm grade reports. Spreadsheets were also used for both the experimental and control groups to find the improvement between (1) the midterm and final averages and (2) the pretest scares and posttest scores. These improvements gave interval scales of measurement. Assuming a normal. distribution because of the large sample size, parametric tests were used. The means of the different groups were compared by 2-sample t-tests to determine if there is a significant difference in the two sets of improvement. No significant difference was found in the improvement between the midterm averages and the final averages in Elementary Algebra or Intermediate Algebra. No significant difference was found in the improvement between pretest scores and posttest scores in Elementary Algebra. A significant difference was found in the improvement between pretest scores and posttest scores in Intermediate Algebra. Another 2-sample t-test showed the improvement to be greater in the classes that did not receive midterm grade reports than in the classes that did receive the reports.
Subject Area
Curricula|Teaching|Educational evaluation
Recommended Citation
Vivian Renee Morgan Alley,
"Midterm grade reports: Are they effective?"
(1997).
ETD Collection for Tennessee State University.
Paper AAI9806334.
https://digitalscholarship.tnstate.edu/dissertations/AAI9806334