An Analysis of the Influence that Community Demographic Data have on Student Performance on 2012 NJASK 8 Language Arts and Mathematics

This correlational, explanatory, cross-sectional quantitative study intended to analyze the influence that community demographic factors had on student performance on the 2012 Grade 8 New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge (NJ ASK). The data that were analyzed were procured from the New Jersey Department of Education website as well as the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Factfinder. The sample size included all New Jersey school districts with an eighth grade population of 25 or more students. This ultimately equated to a sample size of N = 409. The studied explored the community demographic variables that explained the greatest amount of variance on students scoring Advanced Proficient and Proficient on the 2012 NJ ASK 8 Language Arts and Mathematics. The statistical analysis showed that three independent variables (predictors) explained the greatest amount of variance on student performance in both Language Arts and Mathematics: no high school diploma, all people under poverty level, and employment status. Language Arts scores related an R-square value of 67.2% with a margin of error of +/- 7.1 and Mathematics had an R-square value of 63.2% with a margin of error of +/- 9.8 when the independent variables were analyzed. The statistically significant variables combined to accurately predict the percentage of students scoring Proficient or Advanced Proficient in 89.0% of school districts on the Language Arts section of the 2012 NJ ASK 8 and 89.2% of school districts on the Mathematics section of the 2012 NJ ASK 8. This predictive power is remarkable and provides data that demonstrate undeniably that student performance is strongly influenced by factors that abrogate from teaching and learning in the classroom. The results from this study revealed that community demographic factors influenced student results on the 2012 NJ ASK 8.