A comparison of trends in the percent of students who passed the fourth- and ninth-grade Ohio Proficiency Tests between the Ohio Award for Excellence school districts and their similar school districts

Due to the increased attention on school accountability by state-mandated testing for students, educational leaders are investigating quality improvement programs to help school districts raise test scores. In this study, test scores from school districts involved with the Baldrige-based Ohio Award for Excellence program were compared to their similar school districts. Two research questions were constructed to determine whether the trends in the percentages of students who pass the five portions of the fourth- and ninth-grade Ohio Proficiency Test for each school district involved with the Ohio Award for Excellence Program differ from the corresponding trends for its similar school districts. Two statistical models were constructed to determine the trend and significance of the percentage scores for the proficiency tests. Forty research questions were tested using simple and multiple linear regression. The results of this study reveal that the Baldrige-based Ohio Award for Excellence does not seem to have a significant positive impact on test scores.