Larry Dwayne Ponder

Elementary School Structures Larry Dwayne Ponder

Elementary third and fourth grade classrooms were found to be primarily structured in two configurations. Self-contained classrooms are structured with one teacher teaching all academic subjects to his or her students and departmentalized classrooms are structured with two teachers teaching a portion of the academic subjects to two classrooms. These structures were found to coexist in one large urban district with whole schools operating under the self-contained structure or departmentalized structure. A review of the literature found that proponents of each of these structures have existed in American schools for more than seventy years and support for each has been sustained. Utilizing ex post facto research methodology, this quantitative study gathered benchmark and state testing data in mathematics and science to identify patterns in achievement based on classroom structures. Data were analyzed utilizing factors of gender, ethnicity, and program participation in English as a second language (ESL), bilingual, and gifted and talented (GT) programs. It was found that students in fourth grade performed significantly better in departmentalized classrooms for mathematics, third grade bilingual students performed significantly better in departmentalized classrooms for mathematics, fourth grade female ESL and bilingual students performed significantly better in self-contained classrooms for mathematics, and fourth grade bilingual students performed significantly better on one science assessment in self-contained instructional settings.