AN ANALYSIS OF FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO ACHIEVEMENT IN PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY OF SECONDARY STUDENTS IN MISSISSIPPI SCHOOL

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between achievement in physics and chemistry of secondary students in Mississippi and selected variables related to teacher, student, and school and district characteristics. Subjects were 39 physics teachers and 32 chemistry teachers in Mississippi who completed a questionnaire and responded to a semantic differential on their attitude toward science. The MSU Physics Achievement Test was administered to 616 physics students and the Chem 13 News 1982 Exam to 512 chemistry students. Four hypotheses were tested through a simple correlation and multiple regression.;A positive correlation between achievement in physics and each of the following variables was found: certification in chemistry, number of graduate hours in chemistry, undergraduate hours in physics, physics teaching experience, graduate hours in physics, a teaching load which included chemistry, teacher's undergraduate grade point average in science courses, equipment available for physics experiments, and the percent of students reporting an A high school average. Negative correlations included the percent of females in the class, a teaching load which included general science, a load including biology, the type of periodical read on a regular basis by the teacher, and the type of school district. The combination of variables which served as the best predictor of achievement in physics included teacher certification in chemistry, undergraduate hours in physics, percent of students reporting an A high school average, and a teaching load which did not include general science. These variables accounted for 48.7% of the variance.;Achievement in chemistry correlated positively with each of the following variables: a teaching load which included advanced chemistry, student participation in science fairs, school size, teacher age, teaching experience, chemistry teaching experience, teacher gender, and class size. Negative correlations included district type, undergraduate hours in physics, graduate hours in earth science, certification in general science, certification in physics, a teaching load which included general science, one which included biology, and the percent of females in the class. A combination of student participation in science fairs and a teaching load which included advanced chemistry served as the best predictor of achievement in chemistry, accounting for 44.3% of the variance.