| The purpose of the current quantitative method, quasi-experimental design study was to examine the possible influence of a course in the Spanish language on learners' scores in the English section of a norm-referenced test: the Stanford Test of Academic Skills (TASK). The population for the current retrospective comparative study included four years of data for 184 10th grade learners in a boys' Ultra-Orthodox Jewish high school in Baltimore County, Maryland. An experimental group included learners who self-selected into a Spanish language class. A control group included learners who self-selected into another elective. The independent variable was enrollment in the Spanish language class. The dependent variable was learners' scores on the three subtests (language, reading, and spelling) in the English section of TASK. Key findings of the study included the lack of a significant influence by the independent variable on the dependent variable in each of TASK's three subtests in a comparison of test scores between the two groups. A comparison of test scores within each group indicated learners in the experimental group, relative to their test scores at the end of the 9th grade, demonstrated a significant improvement in the language subtest of TASK, the focus of instruction in the Spanish class, at the end of the 10th grade. |
