Date

4-2018

Department

School of Education

Degree

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Chair

Leldon "Buddy" W. Nichols

Keywords

Christian education, Christian worldview, Classical Christian education, Essentialism, Greco-Roman Trivium, private education

Disciplines

Educational Leadership

Abstract

Christian education continues to play an important role in our society. The purpose of the present quantitative study is to compare mean scores on the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT) compared between Classical Christian schools and non-Classical Christian schools to see if there are any significant differences in selected areas of academic performance. Classical Christian schools are defined as private schools employing a distinct Christ-centered pedagogy with an emphasis on the Greco-Roman Trivium. Non-Classical Christian schools are defined as private schools with a Christ-centered pedagogy with no emphasis on the Greco-Roman Trivium. A causal-comparative study was conducted to measure archival data that was randomly selected from all schools answering a headmaster survey. The sample consisted of 4,486 mean scores from the 2003-2004 through 2012-2013 school years: 3,768 mean scores from non-Classical Christian Schools and 718 from Classical Christian schools each in reading and math and 3,768 mean scores from non-Classical Christian Schools and 701 from Classical Christian schools in writing. Data was collected using a headmaster survey. Welch’s t-tests for unequal variances compared school score means with an alpha set at .05 and then at .017 for Bonferroni correction and returned statistically significant results for all three academic areas at both alpha levels. Effect size measured by Cohen’s d and eta squared indicated Classical Christian methodology should have a large, positive effect on PSAT scores. Future research, including field work for demographics as well as associated correlational studies, is recommended.

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