Volume 2 - Issue 1 - DBU Journal of K-12 Educational Research - Page 48

46 Research Question 1 (RQ1) Hypothesis 1. The results of the two-way between ANOVA and the main effects for grouping was statistically significant F (2, 1988) = 22.751, p = .001, partial η 2 = .022 so the researcher re - jected the null hypothesis. Post-hoc comparisons using the Tukey HSD test indicated the mean score for the eighth-grade Pre-AP students who were in regular grouped seventh-grade classes ( M = .2786, SD = .77264) was statistically lower ( p = .001) than the eighth-grade Pre-AP students who were in heterogeneous sev - enth-grade classes ( M = .7871, SD = .88613) and the eighth-grade Pre-AP students who were in seventh-grade Pre-AP classes ( M = .7452, SD = .90105). Hypothesis 2. Results from the two-way between ANOVA and the main effects test failed to reject the null and found there was no significant difference in STAAR scores for Pre-AP students of low and high SES F (1, 1988) = 2.257, p = .133, partial η 2 = .001. Hypothesis 3. Results from the two-way between subjects ANOVA failed to reject the null as they revealed that there was no statistically significant interaction between SES and the sev - enth-grade science classes for STAAR scores F (2, 1988) = 1.197, p = .302, partial η 2 = .001. Research Question 2 (RQ 2) Hypothesis 4. The researcher rejected the null hypothesis as the results from the independent-samples t -test t (1641.418) = 3.122, p = .002, d = 0.12 showed that mean STAAR scores between regular eighth-grade students who were in heterogeneous sev- enth-grade class ( M = -.3795, SD = .81318) were statistically significantly higher than the mean STAAR scores of regular eighth-grade students who were in regular seventh-grade classes ( M = -.4771, SD = .76236). Research Question 3 (RQ 3) Hypothesis 5. The results from the one-way ANOVA revealed that there was a statistically significant difference between the STAAR scores of Pre-AP students from different races, Welch’s F (2, 477.548) = 13.800, p = .001 so the researcher rejected the null hypothesis. Post-hoc comparisons using Dunnett’s T3 analysis indicated that the mean score for White ( M = .7439, SD = .88746) was significantly higher than Black ( M = .4998, SD = .73257) and Hispanic ( M = .5299, SD = .86396). Black and His - panic mean scores did not differ significantly ( p = .962). Research Question 4 (RQ4) Hypothesis 6. The independent-samples t -test indicated there was a statistically significant difference between the mean STAAR Level II and Level III scores between Pre-AP eighth-grade students who were in heterogeneous seventh-grade classes ( M = .9912, SD = .78444) and the mean STAAR scores of Pre-AP eighth-grade students who were in Pre-AP seventh-grade class - es ( M = .8749, SD = .83345). The null hypothesis was rejected, but the alternative hypothesis was that the mean scores of the students who were in Pre-AP seventh grade would be greater than the mean scores of the students who had been in the heteroge- neous seventh-grade classes. The results show that the students who had been in the heterogeneous classes ( M = .9912, SD = .7844) was .116( SE = .04816) higher than the mean z -score of eighth-grade Pre-AP students from seventh-grade Pre-AP science classes ( M = .8749, SD = .83345). Implications Consistent with the research, the current study of the demograph - ics indicated that low SES and minority students are underrep - resented in the higher tracked courses and overrepresented in the regular tracked courses (Aud, Fox, & KewalRanani, 2010; Ballón, 2008; Burris & Garrity, 2008; Chapman, 2013; College Board, 2014; Ford, Moore, & Milner, 2005; Mickelson, 2015). Three-fourths of the students of low SES were in the regular classes whereas the students of high SES in regular classes were just under half. The composition of the Pre-AP classes was less than one-third students of low SES and over two-thirds stu - dents of high SES. Similar numbers portray the representation of minorities in the regular classes. Just over three-fourths of students who are Black and just under three-fourths of students who are Hispanic were in the regular classes. A little over half of the students who are White were in the regular classes. Students who are Black represented only 9.2% of the Pre-AP population, students who are Hispanic 20% of the Pre-AP population, and students who are White 55.5% of the Pre-AP population. The cur - rent research did not delve into the method of student placement in courses, so the researcher could not support or refute the claim that the placement of students of low SES and minorities in lower tracks was either intentional or unintentional (Brown, Hunter, & Donahoo, 2012). Some researchers claimed that ability grouping increased learning for everyone (Vanderhart, 2006) and overall achieve - Sally Smykla Scoggins, Ed.D.