The impact of America's Choice design

This study reviewed the effects of change, fatigue and transformation of low-performing schools while implementing an instructional Design rather than an instructional program. The study investigated the relationship of the America's Choice, Inc. schools with the configuration of the grades 6--8 scores compared to the scores of the state average Arkansas Benchmark. Another purpose was to investigate whether the America's Choice schools in grades 6--8 demonstrated growth over those schools that officially "waivered" from implementing the America's Choice design. The final analysis examined the growth of America's Choice schools in grades 6--8 implementing the Diagnostic Assessment Tool (DAT) performance indicators over schools with comparative demographics. The "Targeted" population of this study consisted of seven Arkansas schools designated in 2008--2009 as School Improvement (SI) 5--7 with grade levels 6--8 implementing the America's Choice design for three complete years. The factor resulting in a smaller sample size was the variable of the specific school and grade level implementing the design for three years. An independent samples t test was used to determine the statistical significance differences between the Targeted population and a Comparative population. A paired sample t test Two Tail-test determined the statistical significance difference between the targeted population and the "waivered" population. In addition, the study analyzed the correlation of a dependent and independent variable determining a correlation. The data indicated there is a significant difference between the student achievements in the America's Choice schools compared to all students in the state of Arkansas. The strongest correlation between the test data and the performance indicators was seen in eighth grade while the largest variance was seen in the sixth grade.