Relationship between cultural literacy and academic achievement

Georgia Jean Kosmoski, Purdue University

Abstract

The purpose of this correlational study was to determine whether a relationship exists between cultural literacy and academic achievement. The national percentile test scores for 611 fifth grade students on the reading and arithmetic sections of the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills provided the data to measure academic achievement. A total correct score on the Cultural Literacy Assessment Test, designed by the investigator, provided the data to measure cultural literacy achievement. The subjects were selected from sixteen different elementary schools in a mid-sized Indiana city. They were categorized by ethnicity (White, Black, Hispanic), gender, SES, and type of school attended (Chapter I or Non-Chapter I). Twelve hypotheses were developed and tested with Pearson correlations and one-way analysis of variance to determine whether a relationship existed between academic achievement and cultural literacy achievement. The variables of ethnicity, gender, SES, and type of school attended were tested to determine whether they affected cultural literacy, itself, as well as the relationship between cultural literacy and academic achievement. Three major findings emerged from this study. First, there was a significant positive relationship between cultural literacy and academic achievement. Second, ethnicity, SES, and type of school attended appeared to affect cultural literacy achievement for this study. Subjects who were White, did not attend a Chapter I school, and were not identified as low SES tended to score high in cultural literacy achievement. Subjects who were Black, attended Chapter I funded schools, and were identified as low SES tended to score low in cultural literacy. Low SES Hispanics at Chapter I schools scored in between Whites and Blacks. Third, neither ethnicity, gender, SES, nor type of school appeared to affect the relationship between cultural literacy and academic achievement. Regardless of group, those students who scored high on cultural literacy tended to score high in academic achievement, and those who scored low on cultural literacy tended to score low on academic achievement. Because this investigation used a non-experimental design causality for these relationships could not be established.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Gay, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Curricula|Teaching

COinS