| End-of instruction (EOI) examinations are used in several states for high school students as a determining factor for graduation and the receipt of a high school diploma. Given that the EOI examinations have become a gateway to a high school diploma, it is important to understand how demographic distributions are related to examination performance. The purpose of this quantitative, casual-comparative study was to compare the changes in the graduation rates in Oklahoma before and after the 2012 implementation of the EOI requirement for graduation. Changes based on type of community (rural vs. urban), and ethnic group (African American vs. others) were also evaluated. Oklahoma graduation rates for 2011 and 2012 were collected from the Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE) website. The overall change in graduation rates from 2011 to 2012 was compared using the Central Limit Theorem. The difference in the change in graduation rates between rural and urban communities was compared using an independent-samples t test. The difference in the change in graduation rates between African Americans and all other students was evaluated using the Central Limit Theorem. Data on graduation rates based on socioeconomic status and English-language learner identification were unavailable. Results of the research are as follows. The difference between the two graduation years was not statistically significant, p = .051, 95% confidence interval = [-0.881, 0.001]. The difference between rural and urban was significant, t(25038) = 13.72, mean difference = 1.17, standard error of the difference = 0.086, 95% confidence interval = [1.006, 1.341], p < .001, indicating that from 2011 to 2012, graduation rates changed significantly more for urban students than for rural students . The graduation rates for rural students showed a slight increase, and the graduation for urban students declined. Research Questions involving SES and ELL were not answered due to insufficient data. The difference between the two groups was significant, 95% confidence interval = [-8.875, -4.785], p < .001, , indicating that from 2011 to 2012, graduation rates in Oklahoma declined significantly more for African Americans than for all other students. The results indicate an increase in rural graduation rates over urban and a decline in African American students with compared to other students in Oklahoma. However, these results must be viewed with caution due to the anomalies in the data. Further research is better understand the relationship between demographics and graduation rates. |
