Socioeconomic versus educational inputs as related to grade six reading achievement in rural Newfoundland

Pollard, Hector Augustus (1970) Socioeconomic versus educational inputs as related to grade six reading achievement in rural Newfoundland. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

The primary purpose of this study was to determine whether reading achievement in rural Newfoundland was related more to socioeconomic than to educational input variables. -- The study was carried out among the Grade Six pupils in Trinity Bay. Information was collected on pupils, parents and teachers by means of questionnaires. Intelligence quotients were determined for all pupils by means of a standardized intelligence test while a standardized reading test was administered to gather information on the dependent variables used in the study -- vocabulary and paragraph comprehension. -- Intelligence was found to be the independent variable most closely related to reading achievement. Also, reading achievement was found to be much more related to home, than to school environment. -- The testing of the major hypotheses showed very clearly that the socioeconomic variables of mother's education, father's occupation, size of family and days absent, were more closely related to reading achievement than were the educational input variables of teacher's qualifications, size of school and age of school. -- The implication here is perhaps not that teachers should not be better qualified, or that newer and larger schools should not be constructed, but that the greater importance of the home to reading achievement must be fully recognized and utilized. In the long run, programs of economic and social development together with aggressive programs of adult and early childhood education may have a greater impact on reading achievement than policies geared solely to improving the supply of qualified teachers and new buildings.

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