| The purpose of this study was to determine the nature of the relationship which exists between elementary student achievement and the variables of attendance, gender, ethnicity, socio-economic status, grade level and community environment (rural, suburban and urban) for students at the second and fifth grade level.;Scores from the Stanford Achievement Test as well as information from the six demographic variables was collected, coded and analyzed for 643 students from ten schools in districts located in a rural, suburban and urban community environment in the state of Missouri. The data was analyzed using the Pearson's Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient. A Step-wise Multiple Regression was also executed which used Attendance and the demographic variables to predict SAT scores. Ten hypotheses were formulated and, with its corresponding statistical test, each was stated individually as either accepted or rejected with the results illustrated using tables.;Based on the information presented in the seven tables, three of the ten hypotheses were accepted while the seven remaining were rejected. A summary of the results indicate all of the variables listed showed a relationship to student achievement with the exception of gender at the second grade level. The socio-economic status of a student emerged as the most significant variable in predicting the variance of SAT scores at the fifth grade level, while ethnicity was more highly correlated to achievement at the second grade level. To a lesser extent, the variable of community environment was also correlated with SAT scores. |
