Academic Progress and Behavioral Changes in Low Achieving and be Pupils

Data on seventy-six second graders and fifty-seven third graders were used to test for significance of difference in reading and mathematics achievement between low-achieving pupils. An analysis of Metropolitan Achievement Test data, before and after the introduction of assistant teachers to first, second, and third grade classrooms, shows that second and third grade students in the lower quartile (Ql) made significant progress in the skills of reading and mathematics compared with previous expectancies. To test for changes in behavior concurrent with changes in achievement a rating scale along twelve dimensions of social and emotional growth was conducted and cross-validated using correlation equations between teacher and teaching assistant perceptions of behavioral change. As a total group, Ql children were viewed as free of behavioral problems on all twelve dimensions.