Accountability In Pre-Service Teacher Education In Relation To Acquiring Democratic Maturity - Statistical Data Included

College Student Journal, March, 1999 by Rosemarie Kolstad

The present study sought to determine the degree to which pre-service teachers acquired "democratic maturity" over the five years spent in the college education program (freshmen through graduate). The study demonstrated that such students achieved democratic maturity in excellent fashion, and that the female students exceeded the male students. The students with the higher grade point average achieved democratic maturity better than those with a lower one.

Texas A & M University - Commerce admits first year students by one of two ways: high school class rank or scores on national screening test (Admissions, 1998). The criteria are either ranking in the top 25% of the graduating class or scoring a minimum of 20 on the ACT or 950 on the SAT test. The minimum required high school curriculum is specified. The Scholastic Aptitude Test has two sections: SAT I measures reasoning, whereas SAT II measures subject knowledge. Claim is made that the SAT I score is the single best indicator of how an individual will do in college, in contrast to grade point averages, that vary from school to school (SAT I, 1997). Without question, academic accomplishment and intellectual potential must be the most important predictors of success in college, yet a significant number of students entering with promise drop out along the way. Of 647 entering freshmen at TAMUS-Commerce in fall, 1997, 97 have left, a one-term attrition rate of 15% (Registrar, 1998). Beyond knowledge and intelligence lies a component of success (or failure) not detected by GPA scores or SAT/ACT results.

The reason why bright young people fail in college are manifold, yet a common thread may well be black of independence and an inability to work and live cooperatively. Conversely, well developed self-control and social maturity should promote academic staying power. If that indeed is the case, scores on this psychological test should average lower for incoming freshmen, who will experience a dropout rate over the years of approximately 50 percent, higher for first-year education majors, who are the survivors of that attrition. This study compared performance on the Democratic Maturity Test (DEMO), which measures maturity and cooperation, by the two groups.

The Democratic Maturity Test (DEMO)

This is a psychological test based largely on the definition of "democracy" as described by John Dewey (Rogers, 1945; Cassel, 1953 & 1954; and Cassel & Kolstad, 1998): "Democracy is the interdependence of independent individuals." Each of the two separate parts of the test depicts growth in relation to one of the two basic cornerstones of democracy: personal growth and social integration. Each one of the eight part scores seeks to display individual cornerstones essential for democratic maturity and effective interactions with others:

1. Personal Maturity:   2. Social Integration:

Ego-status EGO          Conformity CFM
Coping Skills COP       Sympathy SYM
Assertiveness ASS       Withdrawal WIT
Locus of Control LOC    Anxiety ANX
Total Part 1-PERMAT     Total Part 2-SOCINT

Overall Total - DEMO

Part Score Reliability

Each one of the eight part scores on DEMO demonstrates excellent reliability for the population involved in this study, as depicted in Table 1 below. It is clear from these reliability indices that each one of the part scores is an essential element in the total score, and as reliability indices of democratic maturity. All such scores were corrected with the Spearman/Brown correction formula.

Table 1 Reliability of Part Scores on DEMO (N=307)

                             Correlated
                             With Total   Pearson   Spearman/Brown
Part Scores on DEMO            Score         r       Correction

 1. Self-esteem - EST          PERMAT      0.695        0.820
 2. Coping Skills - COP        "           0.764        0.866
 3. Assertiveness - ASS        "           0.612        0.759
 4. Locus of Control - LOC     "           0.720        0.837
 5. PERMAT                     DEMO        0.838        0.911
 6. Conformity - CFM           SOCINT      0.637        0.778
 7. Sympathy - SYM             "           0.521        0.685
 8. Withdrawal - WIT           "           0.791        0.883
 9. Anxiety - ANX              "           0.788        0.882
10. SOCINT                     DEMO        0.897        0.945

Criteria Validity

The Pearson correlation indices depicted in Table 2 suggest part scores that are not only intimately (statistically significantly) related with each other, but also with age, gender, GPA, and grade level. All such correlations that are significant at the 0.01 level of confidence are marked with an asterisk. Only a very few of all the indices do not obtain significance at the 0.01 level of confidence. The negative correlations for "gender" (column 2) suggest a tendency for females to exceed in democratic maturity across the board (males=2, females=1 for statistical analysis).

Table 2 Criteria Validity Based on a Pearson r (N=307)

Score/Data    (1)        (2)       (3)       (4)       (5)

 1. AGE       1000
 2. GENDER   -.321(*)   1000
 3. GRADE      764(*)   -400(*)   1000
 4. EST        191(*)   -184(*)    267(*)   1000
 5. COP        384(*)   -268(*)    404(*)    412(*)   1000
 6. ASS        159(*)   -090       226(*)    213(*)    300(*)
 7. LOC        037      -135       231(*)    357(*)    405(*)
 8. PERMAT     275(*)   -243(*)    405(*)    695(*)    764(*)
 9. CFM        204(*)   -261(*)    330(*)    203(*)    211(*)
10. SYM        097      -285(*)    307(*)    225(*)    431(*)
11. WIT        370(*)   -229(*)    406(*)    444(*)    309(*)
12. ANX        193(*)   -231(*)    407(*)    412(*)    260(*)
13. SOCINT     307(*)   -357(*)    527(*)    471(*)    441(*)
14. DEMO       338(*)   -347(*)    544(*)    654(*)    670(*)
15. GPA        283(*)   -343(*)    349(*)    150(*)    256(*)

Score/Data    (6)       (7)       (8)       (9)       (10)

 1. AGE
 2. GENDER
 3. GRADE
 4. EST
 5. COP
 6. ASS      1000
 7. LOC       210(*)   1000
 8. PERMAT    612(*)    720(*)   1000
 9. CFM      -316(*)    290(*)    144      1000
10. SYM       367(*)    442(*)    530(*)    173(*)   1000
11. WIT      -020       343(*)    414(*)    376(*)    295(*)
12. ANX       048       402(*)    402(*)    228(*)    185(*)
13. SOCINT    004       528(*)    521(*)    637(*)    521(*)
14. DEMO      310(*)    699(*)    838(*)    478(*)    594(*)
15. GPA       129(*)    280(*)    296(*)    280(*)    249(*)

Score/Data    (11)      (12)      (13)      (14)      (15)

 1. AGE
 2. GENDER
 3. GRADE
 4. EST
 5. COP
 6. ASS
 7. LOC
 8. PERMAT
 9. CFM
10. SYM
11. WIT      1000
12. ANX       553(*)   1000
13. SOCINT    791(*)    788(*)   1000
14. DEMO      709(*)    706(*)    897(*)   1000
15. GPA       256(*)    334(*)    412(*)    408(*)   1000