Abstracts

The purpose of this correlational study was to examine the relation between student engagement and reading attitude in an online high school learning environment using the High School Survey of Student Engagement (HSSSE) and the Rhody Secondary Reading Attitude Scale (Rhody). Subjects were administered the HSSSE and Rhody as a single survey electronically using Google Forms during the Fall 2016 semester. All subjects were enrolled in at least one online course at the time of the survey administration. A MANOVA was run to analyze the data for each research question and sub-question. Although this research found there to be no statistically significant correlation between student engagement and reading attitude in the online high school environment used for this study, the results provided a few strong trends: the relation between the number of online courses a student had previously taken and emotional student engagement and the relation between the number of online courses a student had previously taken and overall student engagement. This research found overall trends that contradict the results of research done in traditional high school learning environments, but support previous research done in online high school learning environments. These substantial trends influence the development and implementation of policies and procedures of online high school learning environments in order to increase student engagement (behavioral, emotional, and cognitive). Although this dissertation has distinguished these essential trends, future research must investigate student characteristics and environmental factors to identify elements that lead to increased student engagement (behavioral, emotional, and cognitive).