As teachers and building leaders work to help increase student academic achievement, any strategy that will increase student achievement is worth exploring as an option for helping increase academic achievement. Bandura's theory of collective efficacy, in which individuals working together towards a common goal achieve more than if they were…

This study was designed to investigate the influence of poverty and parent marital status on eighth grade student achievement as measured by the EXPLORE, a precursor to the ACT. The sample included 520 eighth grade students at a middle school in West Kentucky--parent marital status, free/reduced lunch status, and EXPLORE test scores were obtained…

The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a study of 15-year-old students' performance in reading, mathematics, and science literacy conducted every 3 years. The PISA 2018 results provide a global view of U.S. students' performance compared to their peers in nearly 80 countries and education systems. By design, PISA aims to…

Growing up in poverty increases youth risk for developing aggressive behavior problems which, in turn, are associated with a host of problematic outcomes, including school drop-out, substance use, mental health problems, and delinquency. In part, this may be due to exposure to adverse school contexts that create socialization influences supporting…

This study examines practices of principals working in high-performing, high-poverty schools with a high representation of students of color in south central Texas. This study explores how leaders build individual and organizational capacity in high-needs schools. Using a criterion sample, and a conceptual framework focused on leadership for…

Why are some schools able to thrive and produce strong student outcomes, while others struggle? To answer this question, researchers have surveyed teachers and students in Chicago Public Schools (CPS) since the 1990s, asking them about their schools' organizational climate and practices. From these data, researchers at the Consortium on Chicago…

Newark's image has begun to change in recent years. High-profile construction projects downtown and a boom in new housing have been among the visible signs of change. Improvements on measures of child and family well-being have added to the impression of the city moving in a positive direction. Child poverty rates fell in recent years. Incomes…

The relationship between success on proficiency tests and poverty has been widely discussed. This study explores the use of a neighborhood indicator of socioeconomic status based on school lunch participation of elementary school students in that neighborhood, and examines the relationship of poverty to success on a high school proficiency test in…