A study of the impact of enrollment in a computer science class on mathematics scores and attendance in a secondary school

Statement of the problem. There has been a deterioration in attendance and of mathematics test scores among many of the secondary schools in America. Enrollment in a computer science class has recently been focused upon as one of the possible solutions to increasing the attendance and mathematics scores in large urban areas. This study attempted to determine whether those students at a secondary school who had participated in a specific computer science class would show greater mathematics scores at the end of the school year and greater actual attendance in school than those who had not participated. Procedures. The purpose of this study was to determine whether those students at Agoura High School in the Las Virgenes Unified School District in California who participated in a computer science class during the 1984-85 school year showed greater growth in mathematics scores as measured by standardized test scores than a similar group of students who did not participate, and to determine whether the first group of students showed more actual days of attendance in school than the second group of students. The population of this project included 347 (eleventh grade) students from the school. The sample consisted of forty-three students enrolled in only one computer science class and another forty-three students not enrolled in a computer science class. A pretest and posttest with the comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills (CTBS) was used for the purpose of comparing the two groups. Number Cruncher Statistical System (NCSS) was utilized to generate statistics and tables. ANOVA, ANCOVA, and t-tests were used for statistical analysis. Findings. The data supported the hypothesis that there was a relationship between the enrollment in a computer science class and the posttest mathematics scores using days of attendance and pretest mathematics scores as covariates. The data also supported the premise that there was no relationship between the enrollment in a computer science class and the actual days of attendance. On mathematics posttest scores for the comparing of the two groups, an F-ratio of 8.44 was obtained. The significance level of the F-ratio was.0047. The research hypothesis that the enrolled group would surpass the nonenrolled group on posttest mathematics scores was supported by the above data. This was the critical test result. This study revealed that students enrolled in a computer science class had higher posttest scores in mathematics than those who did not enroll. It revealed also that there was no significant difference in attendance in school between the first group of students and the second group of students.