Date
7-2020
Department
School of Education
Degree
Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership (EdD)
Chair
Sarah Hutter
Keywords
Online, Mathematics, State Assessment, Traditional Classroom, Online Classroom
Disciplines
Education | Online and Distance Education
Recommended Citation
May, Marisa, "Comparison Study between Math Test Scores for Brick and Mortar and Online Classrooms" (2020). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 2613.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/2613
Abstract
With the emergence of online education, opportunities have risen for students who seek alternatives to attending a traditional school. However, the rise of virtual education has highlighted the challenges educators and students face in this environment such as academic integrity and quality control. In both learning environments, students often struggle to grasp mathematical concepts despite resources that are intended to aid learners in understanding abstract concepts. With an emphasis on state testing, educators are faced with the challenge to improve both math learning and performance on math standardized tests given at the state level. This study aimed to answer whether there is a difference between the performance of students on math state tests when comparing students who attended a traditional classroom versus those who attended a fully online classroom. Furthermore, this study aimed to identify whether there is a difference between the performance of male and female students on math state standardized tests between students in a brick and mortar classroom and those in an online learning environment. The study used a causal-comparative design of quantitative data with participants drawn from a convenience sample of ninth grade students who attended a virtual public high school in Texas during the 2017–2018 school year. Descriptive statistics were compiled and analyzed. An independent samples t-test was used to determine that a significantly significant difference exists between the performance of students who attended a virtual high school and those who attended a traditional school. Furthermore, a significant difference was also found in the performance of male and female students on a math state test after attending a virtual high school when compared with their peers in a traditional high school.
