The effects of study, organization, and problem-solving skills given to incoming high school freshmen on standardized test scores in English, math, and science

Educators have implemented a plethora of initiatives over the course of the last 10 years in order to aid the transition of freshmen into high school. The research indicated that a gap existed in the use of a summer transition program related to improving achievement. The purpose of this experimental design study was to determine whether or not a summer bridge program focusing on study, organizational, and problem-solving skills would have an effect on students' English, math, science, and composite scores on national standardized assessments. Participants in this study were seniors who qualified for a summer bridge program based on scores in English, mathematics, and science on a national standardized assessment during their eighth grade year. Participation in the summer program was optional, and some students chose not to attend. The effect of the summer program was analyzed by comparing those who participated in the summer program and those who did not. The 30 participants of the summer program constituted the experimental group, while 103 students from the non-participating pool of students served as the control group. A two-tailed t-test was used to determine if gender, ethnicity, economic status, and the number of parents in the home played a role in the achievement on national assessments of the participants, and whether the summer program significantly increased English, math, science, and composite scores on a second national standardized assessment. Results of this research study indicated that there were no significant differences related to the demographic data, and although there was statistically significant growth between the EXPLORE and ACT, the assessment results of the two research groups did not show a statistically significant difference. Therefore, the growth cannot be attributed to the Bridge Program.