Research Project

3

Poor Student Academic Achievement Research Study

Name of Student

Lecturer Name

Course

Date

Poor Student Academic Achievement Research Study

Problem Statement: The problem of poor academic achievement of middle school students will be addressed in this study. It aims to correlate this with socioeconomic factors affecting students’ performance on multiple academic metrics.

Best Practices to Address the Problem: The best practice to this problem is the adoption of focused strategies. For instance, after school tutoring and mentoring programs entail supplementary academic assistance and have been identified to reduce some impacts of SES disparities on performance.

Hypothesis: The present study is based on the hypothesis that middle school students from lower SES perform better if they are provided with targeted academic interventions than the ones not provided with targeted academic interventions. Benefits possibly accruing from such interventions may also be stronger among students with higher levels of absenteeism and, therefore, ongoing participation in supportive programs will further raise academic performance.

Study Population: The Montgomery County school district in Alabama will serve as the focus of the study, with middle school students of varying socioeconomic status. It will have a range of academic performance level students to determine the scope of how economic status affects achievement.

Variables: In this research, the socio-economic status of the students is considered to be the independent variable. It is defined in relation to socioeconomic variables such as family’s income and parents’ educational attainment. The dependent variable is academic achievement and measures test scores, grades and school attendance records.

Consent Form

(Your Name)

The University of West Alabama

Research Proposal Title:

 1.  What is the purpose of the study?

 2.  How was I chosen?

 3.  What will be involved in participating?

 4.  Who will know what I say?

 5.  What risks and benefits are associated with participation?

 6.  What are my rights as a respondent? You may ask any questions regarding the research, and they will be answered fully.  Your participation in the study is voluntary; you may withdraw at any time.

 7.  What will be published?  Following the completion of this research proposal, I plan to maintain my records for use in future publications and scholarly presentations.  I plan to publish my findings as articles in professional journals, with the ultimate goal of publishing a book or a chapter in a book.

 8.  If I want more information, whom can I contact about the study? This study has been approved by the University of West Alabama’s Internal Review Board for the Protection of Human Subjects.  This board can be contacted through the office of Mrs. Patricia Pratt.  In addition, my research advisor, name of your professor, can be contacted at telephone number.

 __________________________             ___________________________________

(Your name), Project Director                 Respondent’s signature, Date

 Note:  The consent format presented above should be used in the appendix of your research proposal.  Items 1 through 5 should be completed as though you are answering the questions of the respondent about your research project.

 Also, if you are conducting research that is covered by the Department of Health and Human Services requirements for minors, you will be required to complete a consent form for minors as shown in your textbook.

This consent form has all the required information from Federal law.

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Methodology/Action Plan

Name of Student

Lecturer Name

Course

Date

Methodology/Action Plan

1. Identify the population and provide a description of the participant sample and the sampling technique.

The focus of study will be middle school students from low socioeconomic status backgrounds within Montgomery County school district in Alabama. Stratified random sampling will be used to select a sample of 100 students, in order to provide representation of students of all grades. This approach yields a diverse, but narrowly defined sample that can shed light on the consequences of SES for academic achievement.

2. Justify the sampling technique and the sample chosen.

The study uses stratified random sampling to guarantee that all grade levels are represented in proportion to the general student population. The sample size of 100 students is large enough for statistically meaningful results and still within the scope of the research. This method guarantees fairness and reduces sampling bias.

3. Describe the role of all participants and the plan to prevent harm to them, including the plan for protecting student confidentiality and data.

Participants will be given targeted interventions such as tutoring or mentoring and their academic progress will be tracked. This study will follow ethical guidelines by obtaining informed consent from parents as well as from students. All data will be anonymized and maintain confidentiality using secure storage of records as well as restricting access to identifying data.

4. Provide a description of steps and sequence of steps required to complete a successful study.

A starting point for the study will be to get the ethical approval and consent from the participants and their guardians. Data collected for baseline academic performance will be followed by implementation of interventions. Academic performance immediately following intervention will be recorded and evaluated data will analyze the effect of the interventions. The last stage is preparing and reporting findings.

5. Justify the plan of action with respect to the identified problem and purpose.

This action plan is targeted to address the problems with poor academic performance by the introduction of targeted tutoring and mentoring programs addressing the problem. For this purpose, these interventions are to counter the effects of socioeconomic factors on student achievement.

6. Define constitutive and operational definitions of key terms.

Socioeconomic status (SES) is an individual or family’s social and economic position based on an individual’s or family’s income, education and occupation to determine access and quality of life. Family income, levels of parental education, and occupational status are used to measure SES operationally with the participants categorized into low, middle, and high status. Generally, academic achievement measures how well students meet educational goals, usually measured in terms of how much students learn through standardized tests and grades. This research will operationally quantify academic achievement using district-wide standardized test scores and GPAs to compare the performance of students who receive targeted interventions with students who do not. Evidence based targeted interventions include tutoring and mentoring, designed to help students struggling with academics. Operationally, the interventions will include structured tutoring sessions as well as mentoring programs for lower SES students that will be carefully monitored for their frequency and duration.