Investigating the impact of course-taking on the standardized test performance of secondary science students in Texas

The latest reform efforts in American education have called for the improvement of science education and greater accountability for results. Standardization of schools, curriculum, and testing has emerged as the preferred method of addressing the increasing pressures of accountability systems designed to ensure student achievement. Increasing course-taking requirements has been a popular response intended to maximize student potential. Texas, like other states, has pursued that course. Texas students must take a minimum of two science courses to graduate; most, however, take three. Students must also pass a science assessment in the eleventh grade, which is similar to a test taken in the tenth grade, and measures mastery of objectives covered primarily in the ninth- and tenth-grades, meaning the instruction most students receive in the eleventh grade amounts to enrichment instruction. This study was designed to investigate the impact of completing an extra science course on student achievement in terms of improvement on these tests. The results of the study were derived from descriptive analysis and a one-way ANOVA performed on a random sample of over 16,000 students. Based on the ANOVA, there was a significant effect of increased science instruction on mean pre-test/post-test score change (F(2,16530) = 44.903, p=.000). The descriptive analysis concluded that more students who completed a science class increased their scores than those who did not complete a class. Overall, however, the study points to a need for future research to uncover additional factors that influence student achievement.