The Effects of After-School Test Preparatory Program on the High School Assessment Scores of English Language Learners Enrolled in American Government

Author/Creator

Author/Creator ORCID

Date

2014-06

Department

Program

Masters of Education

Citation of Original Publication

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Abstract

The study evaluated the effects of an after-school program on the test scores of ninth grade English Language Learners enrolled in an American Government class. The English Language Learners had the option of attending voluntary, weekly, one-hour, after-school sessions. The after-school sessions focused on vocabulary development, selected response strategies, and written strategies. The control group consisted of seventeen students who did not attend any sessions. The experimental group consisted of nine students who attended at least half of the ten sessions. Six students who attended some, but less than half, of the sessions were excluded from the study. The students in both groups were of varying levels of English fluency and from a variety of countries of origin. A pre-test was given to ensure that the groups did not differ significantly and a post-test was given after the ten sessions to determine the impact of participation in the intervention. The experimental group had significantly higher mean percentage scores (Mean = 66.33, SD = 16.30) on a High School Assessment style Government test than the control group (Mean = 32.82, SD = 12.86) [t(24) = -5.77, p < .001]. Implications and ideas for future research are discussed.