There are 22 traditional public and 14 public charter schools in Central Harlem's Community School District 5 ("CSD 5"), educating approximately 9,200 students in grades 3 to 8, of whom 94% are Black or Hispanic and 84% economically disadvantaged. School results on 2019 statewide tests ranged from 99.8 % down to only 8.3% at grade level proficiency. CSD 5 is a natural experimental condition with demographic homogeneity and random assignment of students through a heavily oversubscribed lottery, whereby statistically significant differences in outcomes can be ascribed to the school attended rather than differences in student demographics. The 13 highest performing schools, generally public charter, were autonomously operated and averaged 66% of their students at or above grade proficiency; the lowest 16 performing were all NYC DOE traditional public schools, averaging only 24% proficiency. As evidenced by approximately 5,000 and 4,100 test scores at traditional public and autonomous schools, respectively, of new cohorts of third graders over the seven year period 2013 to 2019, and by comparing all students results in 2016 with 2019, high performing schools remained high performing and low performing schools, all traditional public, remained low performing. Significant and very strong correlations with test scores were found for schools that operated autonomously from the NYC DOE (r[subscript pb] = 0.76, p < 0.001), were non-unionized (a collinear variable since all autonomous schools are non-unionized), and with student hours per year (r = 0.73, p < 0.001). The latter two are related; unionized public schools may have 30% less student hours per year. There was also a strong and significant correlation (r[subscript pb] = 0.60, p < 0.001) with schools that have a high expectations educational philosophy and none with other philosophies, nor with other school related variables such as spending per pupil or classroom size. A strong and significant correlation existed (r = 0.50, p < 0.01 and r = 0.58, p < 0.001 on Math and ELA, respectively) with the percentage of teachers who believed their school maintained effective order and discipline, and no correlation with the percent of students suspended per year. The biggest surprises in this study, which contradicted educational orthodoxy, came from faculty related variables. There were significant moderate to strong correlations (r = 0.55, p < 0.001 and r = 0.45, p < 0.01 on Math and ELA, respectively) with the percent of teachers teaching outside of their subject of certification. There were no significant correlations and/or negative correlations with the experience level of the principal, the percent teachers having 3 + years' experience, or with the percent of Black or Hispanic faculty, likely reflecting many public charter schools' practice of hiring recent graduates as teachers. Regression analyses using the highly correlated variables autonomous operation, hours per year, high expectations philosophy, and percent teachers who believed their school had effective order and discipline, accounted for approximately 60% (= Adjusted R²) of the variance in exam scores. The overall regression was significant (p < 0.001); however, operating autonomy was the only significant individual regression coefficient (p < 0.01). Implications of this study are to allow an increase in the size and number of public charter schools, an increase in the number of hours per year at DOE administered schools, and to foster a high expectations and orderly environment at all schools. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]