In-School and Out-of-School Factors That Build Student Achievement

Salient Effect of Activity Quality on Student Achievement

Another revelation from these data is that students' achievement on standardized tests of reading is correlated with the quality of their active engagement in out-of-school, high-yield activities. Quality was operationalized by the following: parent's perception of how intently the student focused on the activities, how enthusiastically the student performed the activities, and how frequently the student took on leadership roles while doing the activities.

In the Los Angeles study, it was hypothesized that the quality of students' constructive learning activities is correlated with student achievement in reading. That hypothesis was tested with 31 fourth-grade public school students and their parents and educators who participated in a comprehensive ethnographic study on the effects of learning activities on achievement. Fourteen of the students were Latino (Mexican American), nine were Black, and eight were Caucasian (European American). Parents were of the same ethnic groups as their children. Among the Latino students, 10 were from homes where English was the predominant language, and four were from homes where Spanish was the predominant language. Most Latino students' parents had not completed high school, while all Caucasian students' parents and most Black students' parents had completed high school or beyond.

Twenty students with scores above the 50th percentile and positive teacher ratings were classified as high achievers, while eleven students (with scores at or below the 50th percentile and/or negative teacher ratings) were classified as lower achievers. The 31 students were classified as high achiever or lower achiever, based on their NCE scores on the CTBS total reading (obtained from school records) and teacher assessments of each student's classroom skill level (obtained from teacher interviews).

Specifically, researchers examined the quality of two types of out-of-school learning activities: high-yield literacy activities and high-yield enrichment activities. For this analysis, the definition of high-yield literacy activities included reading, writing, and studying. Out-of-school enrichment activities included doing hobbies and playing games. Parents were asked ethnographic interview questions about their children's behavior at home during each of the five activities, and their oral responses were audio-taped. Quality was measured by ratings scores assigned to the parents' responses pertaining to their children's level of enthusiasm, focus/effort, and leadership role behavior during each activity. Parents' responses to each of these three measures were rated as "often," "sometimes," or "seldom" (coded as 3, 2, and 1, respectively).⁴

Although this sample was small and nonrandom, there were identifiable racial achievement test performance gaps. Twenty students were classified as high achievers based on test scores. Eight high achievers were European American, nine were Mexican American (seven English-language dominant, two Spanish-language dominant, and three were Black). Eleven students were classified as lower achievers. Six lower achievers were Black, and five were Mexican American (three English-language dominant and two Spanish-language dominant). None of the European Americans in this sample were classified as lower achievers.

The data in Exhibit 6 show that high achievers generally were involved at a higher quality level in the five constructive out-of-school activities more often than lower achievers were. Specifically, high achievers averaged a "grand total" quality score of 2.4 for the five activities, while lower achievers' quality scores averaged 2.0 for the same activities.

Students' quality of active engagement while doing high-yield activities was significant for the set of activities. Exhibit 6 shows that three of the five activities—reading, studying for school, and playing games—were independently significant in relation to students' reading achievement.⁵