ERIC Identifier: ED436014
Publication Date: 1999-11-00
Author: Dvorak, Jack
Source: ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading
English and Communication Bloomington IN.
Journalism Student Performance in Language Arts. ERIC Digest
D145.
School reform movements during the past 20 years have stimulated programs and
tests that link newspaper reading, journalistic study and other media use with
widely accepted educational objectives found in elementary, middle school,
junior high school, high school and even collegiate language arts curricula.
One recent study (Dvorak, 1998) examines high school student performance on
Advanced Placement (AP) English Language and Composition Examinations from 1989
through 1997. Specifically, it analyzes students who have taken an intensive
journalistic writing course as preparation for the AP examination and compares
their performance with those who have prepared for the same test by taking AP
English composition or some other advanced high school English course.
For seven consecutive years, 1991 to 1997, the journalism students passed at
a rate higher than that of the AP English Composition students. During the first
two years students took tests as part of the program (1989 and 1990), the global
pass rate was higher than the journalism pass rate. In only 1989, the first year
of the experimental program, was the global pass rate significantly higher than
the journalism pass rate.
In a Florida public school district, 17 teachers were trained in Newspaper in
Education methods, and their junior high and senior high school students
received newspapers from a local daily three times a week for a total of 55 days
(Palmer, Fletcher & Shapley, 1994). Standardized tests in vocabulary and
reading by Science Research Associates (SRA) were scored by SRA.
The Florida experiment compared three groups from pretest to posttest:
Newspapers used as part of the instruction in language arts; newspapers
available for students but with no formal instruction; and control groups in
which no newspapers were delivered. Both middle- and senior-high students using
newspapers improved more on all measures of reading and writing than did
students taught with traditional materials (Palmer, Fletcher, & Shapley,
1994).
In another experiment, a program to help at-risk Native Alaskan high school
students focused on training high school language arts teachers to teach
journalism while also using newspaper production as a component in traditional
English classes. Those students in the journalism experimental group showed
significant gains over the control group in standardized vocabulary tests and in
the writing components that were independently graded by language arts
specialists (Morgan & Dvorak, 1994).
While these studies deal with use of newspapers in grades K through 12 and as
parts of the language arts or general curriculum, other studies have examined
specifically journalism student performance in secondary schools and beyond.
Again, the evidence is decidedly positive when comparing various measures among
those who have taken a course in journalism or worked on student media and those
who have not.
Blinn (1982) has shown comparisons of advanced placement and senior honors
composition classes with journalism students of similar ability. In the study
involving senior high school students in 12 Ohio schools, data analysis showed
that journalism writers made fewer errors in most of the writing skill criteria
than did non-journalism students, and they scored significantly higher than
non-journalism students in all four criteria selected as measures of information
presentation and selection judgment: information omission, opening sentence,
editorializing and errors in fact. Also, Blinn found journalism students made
significantly fewer errors in word context, spelling, redundancy, punctuation
and agreement.
A 1988 study of college freshmen divided them into four groups, according to
American College Testing (ACT) English Assessment scores in order to equalize
abilities in language arts competencies. Those with high school newspaper or
yearbook experience had higher writing scores than did non-publications students
in 13 of 16 testcomparisons. All essays were graded by English professors under
the guidance of ACT personnel (Dvorak, 1988).
Another study compared students who had completed one year of college and who
had been on the staff of a high school yearbook or newspaper with those who had
not been involved with school publications. In 10 of 12 statistical academic
comparisons, journalism students earned significantly higher scores than their
non-publications counterparts: cumulative freshman college grade point average;
first collegiate English course; ACT Composite score; ACT English score; ACT
Social Studies score; mean score of the final four high school courses taken
prior to the ACT Assessments in English, social studies, mathematics and natural
science; final high school English grade; final high school social studies
grade; final high school mathematics grade; and final high school natural
science grade. ACT Mathematics Assessment was significantly lower among
journalism students, and ACT Natural Science Assessment scores were nearly
identical between publications and non-publications students (Dvorak, 1989).
In a separate part of the above study, attitudes about general high school
language arts experiences were gathered from first-semester college freshmen who
had taken journalism as part of their language arts program. They rated
journalism as No. 1 in 16 of 29 general language arts competencies; they
selected journalism courses as having fulfilled the general language arts
competencies better than either standard (required) English or other English
elective courses; they selected journalism courses as better fulfilling the
following competencies than did either required English or other elective
English courses: writing, editing, gathering/use of sources, and affective
domain (Dvorak, 1990).
Olson (1992) examined the effect news writing instruction in college freshman
English composition had on students' anxiety toward writing and six
sub-hypotheses. While he found no statistical differences between the groups of
journalism and non-journalism students in composition classes at a private
Oklahoma college, he discovered that the journalism group showed greater
decrease in anxiety, more improvement in their scores on a standardized English
test and more improvement in their scores on the writing exercise.
A study of more than 200 collegians at several universities and colleges
examined perceived influences of English composition as preparation for the
first news writing course for prospective journalism majors (Olson &
Dickson, 1995). Generally, the students did not feel that English composition
was especially useful as preparation for their journalism classes, other courses
or the world of work. Specifically, students were asked to rate 11 skill areas
in which they compared their English composition with their journalistic writing
classes.
Nine of 11 skill areas were statistically significant in favor of journalism
classes: writing concisely, writing precisely, using correct spelling, using
correct grammar, writing clearly, writing meaningfully to an audience, writing
in an organized manner, writing with detail, and writing interestingly. In two
of the 11 skill areas, differences were statistically different in favor of
English composition classes: writing creatively and using your opinions (Olson
& Dickson, 1995).
REFERENCES
Blinn, J.R. (1982). A comparison of selected
writing skills of high school journalism and non-journalism students.
Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. Ohio University.
Dvorak, J. (1988). High school publications experience as a factor in
college-level writing. Journalism Quarterly, 65(2), 392-398. [ED 295 219]
Dvorak, J. (1989). Publications experience as a predictor of college success.
Journalism Quarterly, 66(3), 702-706. [EJ419864]
Dvorak, J. (1990). College students evaluate their scholastic journalism
courses. Journalism Educator, 45(1), 36-46. [EJ 411 550]
Dvorak, J. (1998). Journalism Student Performance on Advanced Placement
Exams. Journalism and Mass Communication Educator, 53(3), 4-12. [EJ 579 238]
Engleman, T. (1989). Analysis of advanced placement English language and
composition exam results. Invited paper presented to the Secondary Education
Division of the Association in Journalism and Mass Communication annual
convention, Washington, D.C.
Grusin, E.K., & Stone, G.C. (1993). The newspaper in education and new
readers. Journalism Monographs, 141.
Morgan, L., & Dvorak, J. (1994). Impact of journalism instruction on
language arts in Alaskan schools. Journalism Educator, 49(3), 15-19. [EJ 494
466]
Olson, L.D. (1992). Effect of news writing instruction in English composition
classes. Journalism Educator, 47(2), 50-56. [EJ 447 047]
Olson, L.D., & Dickson, T. (1995). English composition courses as
preparation for news writing. Journalism & Mass Communication Educator,
50(2), 47-54. [EJ 508 203]
Palmer, B.C., Fletcher, H.J., & Shapley, B.A. (1994). Improving student
reading, writing with newspaper-based instruction. Newspaper Research Journal,
15(2), 50-55. [EJ 496 022]
Vockell, E.L., & Cusick, K. (1995). Teachers' attitudes toward using
newspapers in the classroom. The Clearing House, 68(6), 359-364. [EJ 511 488]
Digest #145 is EDO-CS-99-06 and was published in November 1999 by the ERIC
Clearinghouse on Reading, English and Communication, 2805 E 10th Street,
Bloomington, IN 47408-2698, Telephone (812) 855-5847 or (800) 759-4723.