The relationship between Mississippi accreditation ranking and socio-economic status of student populations in accredited schools

Socio-economic status (SES) of students has long been viewed as having a strong impact on student achievement. While the nature and strength of the relationship between SES and student achievement may be open to some debate, the almost universal acceptance of SES as an important variable in student achievement outcomes has implications for funding policy and programmatically. A study of the relationship between SES and student achievement as reflected in state accreditation rankings of schools in Mississippi attempted to determine whether SES is related to student achievement measures in Mississippi. Results show that SES is significantly related to aggregate student achievement. Schools with higher numbers of low SES students were more likely to receive lower accreditation ranking while schools with lower numbers of low SES students were more likely to receive higher accreditation rankings. Given the strength of the relationship shown, it seems clear that emphasis should be given to increasing the funding available through the state funding mechanism in Mississippi that addresses SES. Programmatically, these and other available funds should be directed to programs shown to remediate academic deficits related to SES