Exploring causal models of education achievement.

Abstract

This article evaluates five causal models of educational productivity as they apply to learning science among a sample of 882 fifth- through eighth-grade students. Each model explores the relationship between achievement and a combination of eight constructs: home environment, peer group, media, ability, social environment, time on task, motivation, and instructional strategies. Linear structural-relations (LISREL) analysis was employed to examine each of the models. The complex theoretical model had statistically significant (positive) coefficients for all the constructs except quality of instruction; and gopdness-of-fit indices showed it was the best fitting model with the lowest average residual size. The educational process obviously involves more than one or two factors. Prior theory and research synthesis suggest that academic achievement, attitudes, and behavior are influenced by student motivation and ability (or its proxy, prior achievement); the quality and quantity of instruction including self-instruction; the psychological environments of the classroom group, peer group, and home; and exposure to mass media, particularly television (Walberg, 1981, in press). Theoretical identification and explication of the causal dependencies among the factors can suggest ways to maximize student achievement at minimum costs of timftand effort for teacher and student. This article explores several causal models that characterize the educational process in terms of the simultaneous effects of several variables in the form of production functions or mathematical equations that estimate levels of achievement from measured input factors.

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