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SELECTED COMMUNITY INSTITUTIONS' EFFECT ON LITERACY OF BLACK YOUTH MEMBERS

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Date Issued:
1980
Summary:
Purpose. The purpose of this study was to determine the positive contributions of community social agencies and institutions outside the home and school on the literacy and academic success of black youth members. Recent assessment at the State's level indicates that 37 percent of the state's 11th graders failed Part II of the Florida State Student Assessment Test (formerly termed the Functional Literacy Test) during the Fall of 1977. Evaluation of the Fall, 1978, testing revealed that 26 percent of the State's 11th graders failed to show mastery of skills necessary to be considered functionally literate. A closer exploration of these statistics revealed that a particular segment of the 11th graders--specifically, black youth--performed in a reverse order: 78 percent of black 11th graders failed in the Fall of 1977, and 61 percent failed again during the Fall of 1978. This data indicated that black students at the 11th grade level failed twice as often as their white counterparts. The Fall of 1979 testing showed some gain on the part of all 11th graders, however, black 11th graders continue to fail at a disproportionate rate. The sample in this study was drawn from the four high schools situated in the north and central-mainland areas of Brevard County, Florida. The sample includes only those black students who had attempted the State Student Assessment Program during their residency in Brevard County, Florida. There currently is no well-defined methodology relating to the informal learning of children. This study attempted to develop a model which scaled a child's participation in activities which may foster informal learning. Scaled participating was based of membership, office held, committee chaired, and the number of hours per week of involvement in community-based activities. The data compiled and analyzed for the subject population yielded a correlation between community institutional participation and demonstrated literacy on the State Student Assessment Test. The scores were tabulated for each respondent. The data were transmitted to IBM computer cards and submitted for statistical analyses through the use of the Florida Atlantic University's Computer Center. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences was used to compute Pearson's product-moment Correlation, in addition the Fisher t-test was used to verify the level of significance in deciding to reject or accept the research hypothesis at the .05 level of confidence. Conclusions and Recommendation. In testing the hypothesis, there were no significant differences at the .05 level of significance in students who participated in community institutions' activities and those students having little or no participation in community institutions' sponsored activities. Based on the statistical analysis of the responses, the previously stated hypothesis should be rejected. However, a very interesting phenomenon appears when females who participated in headstart programs are compared with females who had not participated in the headstart programs. The female students with headstart exposure experienced a higher degree of success in passing the SSAT. There was not a significant difference in the achievement of black male students with headstart exposure as compared with the black male students without headstart exposure. It is concluded from the results of these analyses that a variety of variables, outside of the home and school, do play a role in the general literacy of our youth. If educational systems are to become more effective, all segments of the community must be provided ways to become involved in the creation of proper learning environments. It is recommended that a replication of this study be made utilizing a large urban district. It is also recommended that replication of this study be made using the white counterpart to this study.
Title: SELECTED COMMUNITY INSTITUTIONS' EFFECT ON LITERACY OF BLACK YOUTH MEMBERS.
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Name(s): FAYSON, GEORGE LEWIS, SR.
Florida Atlantic University, Degree grantor
Kerensky, Vasil M., Thesis advisor
Smith, Lawrence E., Thesis advisor
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation
Issuance: monographic
Date Issued: 1980
Publisher: Florida Atlantic University
Place of Publication: Boca Raton, Fla.
Physical Form: application/pdf
Extent: 152 p.
Language(s): English
Summary: Purpose. The purpose of this study was to determine the positive contributions of community social agencies and institutions outside the home and school on the literacy and academic success of black youth members. Recent assessment at the State's level indicates that 37 percent of the state's 11th graders failed Part II of the Florida State Student Assessment Test (formerly termed the Functional Literacy Test) during the Fall of 1977. Evaluation of the Fall, 1978, testing revealed that 26 percent of the State's 11th graders failed to show mastery of skills necessary to be considered functionally literate. A closer exploration of these statistics revealed that a particular segment of the 11th graders--specifically, black youth--performed in a reverse order: 78 percent of black 11th graders failed in the Fall of 1977, and 61 percent failed again during the Fall of 1978. This data indicated that black students at the 11th grade level failed twice as often as their white counterparts. The Fall of 1979 testing showed some gain on the part of all 11th graders, however, black 11th graders continue to fail at a disproportionate rate. The sample in this study was drawn from the four high schools situated in the north and central-mainland areas of Brevard County, Florida. The sample includes only those black students who had attempted the State Student Assessment Program during their residency in Brevard County, Florida. There currently is no well-defined methodology relating to the informal learning of children. This study attempted to develop a model which scaled a child's participation in activities which may foster informal learning. Scaled participating was based of membership, office held, committee chaired, and the number of hours per week of involvement in community-based activities. The data compiled and analyzed for the subject population yielded a correlation between community institutional participation and demonstrated literacy on the State Student Assessment Test. The scores were tabulated for each respondent. The data were transmitted to IBM computer cards and submitted for statistical analyses through the use of the Florida Atlantic University's Computer Center. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences was used to compute Pearson's product-moment Correlation, in addition the Fisher t-test was used to verify the level of significance in deciding to reject or accept the research hypothesis at the .05 level of confidence. Conclusions and Recommendation. In testing the hypothesis, there were no significant differences at the .05 level of significance in students who participated in community institutions' activities and those students having little or no participation in community institutions' sponsored activities. Based on the statistical analysis of the responses, the previously stated hypothesis should be rejected. However, a very interesting phenomenon appears when females who participated in headstart programs are compared with females who had not participated in the headstart programs. The female students with headstart exposure experienced a higher degree of success in passing the SSAT. There was not a significant difference in the achievement of black male students with headstart exposure as compared with the black male students without headstart exposure. It is concluded from the results of these analyses that a variety of variables, outside of the home and school, do play a role in the general literacy of our youth. If educational systems are to become more effective, all segments of the community must be provided ways to become involved in the creation of proper learning environments. It is recommended that a replication of this study be made utilizing a large urban district. It is also recommended that replication of this study be made using the white counterpart to this study.
Identifier: 11772 (digitool), FADT11772 (IID), fau:8702 (fedora)
Collection: FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection
Note(s): Thesis (Educat.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 1980.
College of Education
Subject(s): African American children--Education--Florida
Community and school
Held by: Florida Atlantic University Libraries
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/11772
Sublocation: Digital Library
Use and Reproduction: Copyright © is held by the author, with permission granted to Florida Atlantic University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder.
Use and Reproduction: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Host Institution: FAU
Is Part of Series: Florida Atlantic University Digital Library Collections.