The Community and School Factors Effecting Student Achievement in Utah Public School Districts

honors thesisCollege of Social & Behavioral ScienceEconomicsThomas MaloneyIn 2017, the Office of the Legislative Fiscal Analyst (LFA) published a report titled "What Drives Student Achievement Across States?" finding that, "educational attainment of adults has the largest and most consistent impact on k-12 student achievement." This was analysis on three measure of student outcomes and eleven statewide aggregate measures. This analysis follows in the same way, using Utah based data on a local educational agency (LEA) level to answer the question: What should be the focus of investment of resources to see higher achievement in Utah public schools? Using similar measures of success, doing the analysis on a smaller scale allows from the initial analysis of 292 variables. The indicators are conceptually placed in three categories: Community Factors, School Descriptors, and Financials. All of the data used in the analysis was obtained through various State agencies, the Census Bureau, and a few private organizations. Because of the nature of the statewide testing, and the cleanliness of data, only school years 2014-15 through 2016-17 are included in longitudinal testing. The goal of the analysis is to identify factors that have the highest statistical impact on performance