This dissertation explores factors influencing measured academic
Achievement among grade 3 students in a large urban district in Ohio, with an
explicit focus on understanding the academic performance of impoverished
White students in urban settings. The work also investigates contextual
factors identified in the extant Literature (such as school demographic and
structural characteristics) that may exert influence over schooling outcomes,
and explores whether such factors manifest differently for White and
Minority students. The investigation is motivated by and extends qualitative
work investigating the experiences of middle school students in Texas (Morris,
2006). The study proposed here offers a quantitative extension in a large
urban district while Morris‘ ethnographic study focused on one urban school.