That Account for Effective Student Performance in High-Poverty Schools Problem. In the 10 years since the enactment of KERA, Kentucky s public schools have made great progress. However, some schools continue to perform poorly, as measured by biannual assessments of student achievement. In particular, schools that have a high percentage of poor students tend to perform substantially less well than schools whose students are more affluent. The purpose of this study is to identify factors that explain this phenomenon, as well as to explore the relationship between student academic performance and rates of behavior problems.
Schools also report the percent of students who receive free and reduced cost meals.
Schools that fell between one and two standard deviations below the mean, but also scored above the mean on CTBS were selected for study. Teams of observers will go into these schools, as well as comparison schools that conform more to the expected pattern of poverty and achievement. These teams will use a standard protocol for conducting interviews with school personnel and making observations about school climate. The outcome of these site visits will be to identify factors that appear to discriminate between schools that are outliers and those that fit the expected pattern. Focus groups of educators from schools like those to be visited will be conducted to guide development of the site visit protocol.