Chapter Four: Introduction
Analysis of Data
The guiding research question in the investigation is: To what extent
Do student- (particularly race/ethnicity and SES) and school-level factors
Predict Student achievement in the target district? A sub-confirmatory
question is part of the study: Do impoverished urban White students
perform at comparable levels to impoverished urban Minority students?
The purpose of this study was to examine achievement differences
Between groups based on socially ascribed characteristics, with a focus
on economically disadvantaged White elementary school students in one
large urban district. The analyses examined how both student-level
characteristics and the interaction of student-level characteristics
like race and SES influence achievement. The analyses also considered
Whether student-level factors are influenced by school-level contextual
variables (e.g., school-level SES, school size, etc.).