Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy ETDs

Publication Date

8-3-1972

Abstract

The purposes of this study were (1) to obtain information concerning student activities in selected middle schools, 7-8 junior high schools, and 7-9 junior high schools in Arizona, California, Colorado and New Mexico, (2) to determine to what degree student activities programs in these intermediate schools differed from each other, and (3) to determine whether practices in any one of the organizational patterns were more likely to be in consonance with a theoretical (consensus) model developed for this study than either of the other two grade organizations being studied. The information for this study was obtained through (1) a poll of authorities and (2) a survey of intermediate school principals selected at random from the educational directories obtained from state departments of education in their respective states. Fifteen of twenty-eight authorities polled responded while two hundred fifty-eight of four hundred twenty-seven intermediate school principals participated in the survey. In each instance, the questionnaire survey method was used.

Some Selected Findings

From the data compiled, it was found that:

1. With the exception of practices in interscholastic sports, boys and girls, and a reliance on student fund raising activities rather than allocations from the school district, the student activities practices reported, in all intermediate schools, generally, were more like than unlike the practices proposed in the model.

2. In their use of night dances, commercially prepared student publications, interscholastic sports competition, and intramural sports activities, no differences were found among and between the intermediate schools studied.

3. When compared on the basis of their location, i.e., inner city, urban, suburban, and rural, no significant differences were found in the total number of student activities offered, boys interscholastic sports, and girls intramural sports. Significantly fewer activities, however, were reported by the rural schools than by any one of the other three groups.

The findings strongly suggest that in the number and types of student activities available, there are no significant differences among and between middle schools, 7-8 junior high schools and 7-9 junior high schools. In light of selected findings 1, then, a question that arises and remains to be answered is whether student activities in the junior high schools and middle schools are evolving toward programs advocated by middle school proponents or whether middle school practices are drifting toward those usually associated with the traditional junior high school.

Document Type

Dissertation

Language

English

Degree Name

Certificate in Curriculum and Instruction

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy

First Committee Member (Chair)

Alvin Wendell Howard

Second Committee Member

Robert John Doxtator

Third Committee Member

Tom Wiley

Download

Share

COinS