THE RELATIONSHIP OF THE LOUISIANA STATE ASSESSMENT TEST FOR READING, WRITING, AND MATHEMATICS TO SELECTED PREDICTOR VARIABLE

The purposes of this investigation were: (1) to determine if significant relationships existed between Louisiana State Assessment Test (LSAT) reading, writing, and mathematics scores and the predictor variables size of school, race, sex, occupation of mother, occupation of father, education level of mother, education level of father, and number of siblings; and (2) to determine if significant differences existed beween LSAT mathematics scores and the variables algebra I, algebra II, business mathematics, computer science, general mathematics I, general mathematics II, geometry, trigonometry, and advanced mathematics.;The sample consisted of 54,421 tenth grade students tested by the 1981 LSAT. The LSAT was designed to determine minimum competency in reading, writing, and mathematics. The variables used in the study were collected by the LSAT.;The Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient was computed and revealed that significant relationships existed between reading, writing, and mathematics scores and all predictor variables at the .05 level. A post hoc analysis was conducted using Duncan's Multiple Range Test. A t-test determined that significant differences existed at the .05 level between the LSAT mathematics scores and all variables, with the exception of advanced mathematics.;Findings of the research led to the following conclusions: (1) Reading, writing, and mathematics achievement are directly related to the predictor variables. (2) Certain school sizes could be used as predictors of success for reading and writing achievement. (3) Black students ranked consistently below other minority groups. (4) Occupation of Mother predicts achievement more effectively than does Occupation of Father. (5) Children of unskilled workers achieve to a lesser degree than children of parents in other occupations. (6) Students are not negatively affected by working mothers if employment is in business or professional positions. (7) Achievement decreases as the number of children in a family increase above three. (8) The most dependable predictor on the LSAT was Race. (9) Mathematics achievement increased as the difficulty level of mathematics courses increased, with the exception of Advanced Mathematics. (10) Writing scores were influenced more by the Attended College category in the variables Occupation of Mother and Occupation of Father than were reading and mathematics scores.