The Production of Achievement and Attitude in High School Social Studies

Abstract

To probe a psychological theory of educational productivity, social studies achievement and attitude test scores of 2,001 17-year-old high school students (from a National Assessment of Educational Progress sample) were statistically related to each other and to indicators of constructs that prior research shows are associated with learning outcomes. In eight linear and log-linear, ordinary least-square regressions with from 7 to 15 independent variables, several production factors are significant-socioeconomic status, home environment, traditional instruction, time or amount of study, and (negatively) leisure-time television viewing. Also, item-learning correlations yield clues for improving learning productivity. Systems regressions, however, reveal ambiguity in the causal relations in that measurement error and exogenous and reverse causes may account for the significant findings.