An Examination of Psychological Variables and Reading Achievement in Upper Elementary Students
Public Deposited- Last Modified
- March 21, 2019
- Creator
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Anderson, Julie
- Affiliation: School of Education
- Abstract
- Data in the United States shows that perceptions of student well-being are low, childhood mental health disorders are rising, and performance on high-stakes tests in reading is stagnant across the early grades. Substantial effort, time, and money have been invested in school improvement policies, high-stakes school climates, and literacy curricula. Missing in the literature is current evidence on the contribution that psychological variables make to reading outcomes. Psychological variables were examined in relation to high-stakes reading outcomes for fourth, fifth, and sixth graders in a rural Title I school in a mid-Atlantic state. An electronic survey measuring Well-being (Hope and Engagement), Attribution, and Mindset was administered one day after the end of grade testing in June 2016. A significant relationship was found between Hope and high-stakes reading scores and Mindset and high-stakes reading scores. Hope and race were found to be significant predictors of high-stakes reading outcomes. Engagement, Attribution, and Mindset were not significant predictors of reading outcomes. Significant group differences were found for Hope and reading scores for race but not for gender and grade. No significant differences were found on measures of high-stakes reading, Well-being, Hope, Engagement, Attribution, and Mindset between fourth, fifth, and sixth graders. These results provide supportive evidence that there is a significant relationship between Mindset and achievement. These results contradict evidence that there are differences in achievement between boys and girls, and that there are significant relationships between well-being and achievement and engagement and achievement and attribution and achievement. Contrary to earlier findings, a significant relationship between well-being and test scores was not found. These results provide new evidence that psychological variables as measured by Hope and Mindset predict reading outcomes above and beyond demographic variables.
- Date of publication
- May 2017
- Keyword
- DOI
- Resource type
- Rights statement
- In Copyright
- Advisor
- Simeonsson, Rune
- Rong, Xue Lan
- Evarrs, Sandra
- Hughes, Sherick
- Knotek, Steven
- Degree
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Degree granting institution
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Graduate School
- Graduation year
- 2017
- Language
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