ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT AND THE ABILITY OF POST-SECONDARY STUDENTS TO READ ASSIGNED MATERIALS

This study provides a rationale for adopting course materials. It demonstrates the relationship between ability to read assigned materials and academic achievement, and that selection of materials creates two groups having different probabilities of success.;The hypothesis that reading ability of students is positively correlated with academic achievement was verified. The hypothesis that the group of interest will have significantly lower academic achievement than the comparison group was verified. The hypothesis that reading ability is a significant factor in forecasting academic achievement was not verified.;The hypothesis that reading ability is negatively related to the presence of frustration was verified. The hypothesis that freshmen, nonwhite ethnics, and users of English as a second language have significantly lower reading ability was verified; that they have significantly lower academic achievement was not.;The findings demonstrate the role of written materials as a barrier and a producer of frustration. Selection of materials produced the demarcation separating students into groups with different experiences encountering a barrier. General reading level of students is related to admissions policy. Selectors of course materials should consider the relationship between reading ability of students and the readability of materials to avoid conflict with admissions policy.;The sample was selected from a population of all students enrolled in Principles of Economics courses at North Texas State University in the spring semester of 1986. The Nelson-Denny Reading Test was used to determine reading ability. Assigned materials were analyzed for readability. A frustration level was determined and used to divide the sample: the group of interest, those with reading abilities below the frustration level who underwent the treatment of reading materials written above their ability to comprehend; and the comparison group, those with reading abilities above the frustration level who did not undergo the treatment.