Socio-economic Status Of Parents And Students' Academic Performance
[A CASE STUDY OF LAGELU GOVERNMENT AREA, OYO STATE]

CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This chapter provides explanation on the study design considered appropriate for the investigation, the population, sample and sampling technique, instrumentation, validity and reliability of the instrument, procedure for data collection and method of data analysis.   
Research design
A good number of people in the target population should be reached for a study’s conclusions to be generalised. Therefore, the survey research design was employed in order to reach a reasonable number of people in the target population. The survey design is an effective way of gathering information on the beliefs, opinions, attitudes or behaviours of respondents.
Population, Sample and Sampling Techniques
The population for this study comprised all the 26 public secondary schools in Lagelu Local Government Area of Oyo State. Simple random sampling techniques was used by the researcher to select 10 out of the 26 public secondary schools as target population for this study. Twenty students were randomly selected from each secondary school, giving a total of 200 respondents for the study.
Instrumentations
The researcher designed two research instruments which are "Socio-Economic Status of Parents Questionnaire” (SESPQ) and “Students Academic Performance Proforma” (SAPP)". The questionnaire is divided into two sections. Section A contains items that probe into the respondents' demographic data while Section B provides items formulated from the research questions.
The questionnaire is structured in the four-likert- type rating scale as follows:
Strongly Agree= (SA), Agree= (A), Disagree= (D), Strongly Disagree= (SD),
The Students’ Academic Performance Proforma was used to examine students' Senior School Certificate Examination results between 2013-2016.
The draft of the instrument was given to experts in the Department of Educational Management and Measurement Evaluation for proper modification to check the content and face validity of the instrument.
The research adopted a test-retest method to test the reliability of the instrument. Copies of the instrument were administered to 40 students within the population but outside the sampled schools. After two weeks of administration, the outcome of the responses were calculated by using Pearson Product Moment Correlation statistics to ascertain its reliability at 0.89 significance level.
Procedure for Data Collection
The questionnaire was distributed by the researcher with the help of two research assistants who administered the instruments in the selected public secondary schools. The researcher retrieved the completed questionnaire from the respondents and used it for the analysis of the study.
Method of Data Analysis
Data was analyzed using simple statistical frequencies and percentages. The analysis was based on the number of properly completed and retrieved copies of the questionnaire. Descriptive statistics of frequency counts and percentage were used in analysing demographic data while Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) was also used to test the stated hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance.