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An investigation of the impact of the education reform movement and the revised state standards for approval and accreditation on program offerings and program enrollments in selected Nebraska high schools

Darlene Joyce Farrell, University of Nebraska - Lincoln

Abstract

The national and state reports of the 1980's led to a general premise that changes should be made to improve secondary education. In response to these reports revised state standards were implemented. The purpose for conducting this study was to determine whether the education reform movement and the revised state standards had brought about changes in the grade 9-12 program offerings and program enrollments in Nebraska Class II and Class III school districts. A secondary purpose was to develop a data base describing the current grade 9-12 course offerings and course enrollments. A stratified sample of 48 Nebraska high schools was chosen. Pertinent data about courses offered and courses taken during the 1982-1983 and 1987-1988 school years were organized according to thirteen designated subject areas. The fall curriculum reports from the Nebraska Department of Education provided the data. The amount of class time for each subject area was used as the underlying quantifier. Courses offered were measured in terms of instructional units. Courses taken by students were measured in terms of enrollment units. A repeated measures t statistic was used to test for changes. The t statistic was used to develop a summary tabulation of program data for small-enrollment, medium-enrollment, and large-enrollment schools. The results of this study indicated that certain changes had occurred. There had been an increase in the program offerings and an increase in the program enrollments. Some shifts of emphasis in program offerings and program participation among the subject areas had occurred. In developing the data base it was found that the most courses were offered in the large-enrollment schools and the most enrollment units per student were taken in the small-enrollment schools. There were only slight differences in the percentages of total program offered in the academic areas among the three categories. In percentages of total program taken in the academic areas, the large-enrollment schools ranked first and the small-enrollment schools ranked third.

Subject Area

Curricula|Teaching

Recommended Citation

Farrell, Darlene Joyce, "An investigation of the impact of the education reform movement and the revised state standards for approval and accreditation on program offerings and program enrollments in selected Nebraska high schools" (1988). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI8911110.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI8911110

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