The implementation of strategies to minimize the achievement gap for African-American, Latino, English learners, and socio-economically disadvantaged students

UnrestrictedThe purpose of this study was to examine the implementation of certain school-wide initiative teaching strategies and to determine the practical and/or statistical impact of the multiple interventions on achievement for specific student groups (African-Americans, Latinos, English Learners, and Socio-economically Disadvantaged). This quasi-experimental study with two non-equivalent control schools, Cassino Campbell High School and Marion Saxon High School, began early in the 2004-2005 school year and culminated with the spring 2007 California Standards Tests. The main participants in this study consisted of approximately 750 high school students in grades 9 through 12, whose Academic Performance Index (API) and California Standards Test results were compared with those of two non-equivalent control groups. Additionally, although the achievement of Hispanic/Latinos, English Learners, and Socio-economically Disadvantaged students was examined, the continued decline in African-American (AA) achievement in the schools, district, and across the country stimulated interest in, and a closer scrutiny of the growth trends of African-American students.; The campus-wide daily intervention included the display of lesson steps, warm-up activities, state standards, and homework in each classroom, checking for understanding through the use of random questioning and whiteboard/display cards, and across-the-curriculum focus on Bloom's levels of higher-order questions. The pre/post independent groups design was used when analyzing the change from the 2004-2005 pre-intervention CST results to the 2006-2007 post-intervention at McKnight High School