Date of Award
5-2023
Document Type
Dissertation
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Degree Name
Doctor of Education (EdD)
Department
Division of Education and Counseling
First Advisor
Timothy Glaude, Ph.D.
Second Advisor
Judith Miranti, EdD.
Third Advisor
Rasheda Bell Ph.D.
Keywords
covis-19 and math achievement, covid-19 effects on math
Abstract
Learning loss due to COVID-19 and the digital divide will have dire consequences for low-income students. This study used the Faucet Theory (Alexander et al., 2001) as a theoretical framework to determine the extent that the COVID-19 learning environment impacted the Southern Public Schools District’s African American, low-income, and high-income high school students’ proficiency level based on the Algebra I section of the 2020-2021 Louisiana Education Assessment Program (LEAP) assessment. The researcher used archival data from the LEAP, a causal-comparative research design, and a one-way ANOVA to test the hypotheses and answer the research question. The results of the one-way ANOVA indicated that the pre-COVID-19 learning environment had no impact on African American, high-income, and low-income high school students’ average percentages at the mastery and basic proficiency levels, but it had a moderately negative impact on students’ average percentages at the approaching basic (p = .038) and unsatisfactory (p = .021) proficiency levels. The COVID-19 learning environment had no impact on African American, high-income, and low-income high school students’ average percentages at the advanced and basic proficiency levels, but it had a strong negative impact on African American, high-income, and low-income high school students’ average percentages at the mastery (p = .006), approaching basic (p =.007), and unsatisfactory (p = .008) proficiency levels.
This study will give additional insights into COVID-19’s impact on the student
achievement of a populace most susceptible to learning loss, high school students in a high- poverty school district. It will add to the current knowledge base on high-poverty school
districts, distance education, learning loss, the digital divide, and student achievement in mathematics. The results showed that the COVID-19 learning environment widened the achievement gap between high and low income students and increased learning loss for students from specific backgrounds—African-American students and students in low-income households. This study is important because the researcher found that regardless of race or socioeconomic status, a blended teaching methodology of problem solving, individualized tutoring, game-based interaction, and computer assisted practice could significantly increase learning gains in mathematics, especially in cognitive areas. In fact, a blended learning environment could benefit low-performing students more than high-performing students.
Recommended Citation
Johnson, Jay M., "Covid-19 & Mathematics Achievement: A Casual-Comparative Study" (2023). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation. 95.
https://digitalcommons.xula.edu/etd/95