Elementary and Secondary Education in America: Using Induction and Correlation to Evaluate Public Policies and Student Outcomes

Journal of Social Research & Policy, Volume: 6, Issue: 1, pp. 5-30

Date: July 2015

ISSN: 2067-2640 (print), 2068-9861 (electronic)

Abstract: This is a study of elementary and secondary education in America. The current debate with respect to public policies is addressed using the general consensus with respect to student outcomes. Five policies are examined: spending, organization, size, race, and sex. And five outcomes are examined: standardized tests, academic achievement, economic success, serious misbehavior, and overall wellbeing. The five policy variables are operationalized using twelve policy measures. And the five outcome variables are operationalized using fifteen outcome measures. An inductive approach is employed with bivariate correlation used for both data-mining and hypothesis-testing. The twelve policy measures are transformed into twelve null hypotheses which are rejected (or NOT) based on the strength, significance, and number of correlations between each policy measure and the fifteen outcome measures. And the rejected null hypotheses are viewed as specific conclusions with respect to the direction of correlation, positive or negative. General conclusions are then drawn with respect to the five policy variables.

Keywords: Education; K-12; Elementary; Secondary; Policies; Outcomes.