Closing The Minority Achievement Gap in Georgia Middle Schools: Principals' Perspectives

The purpose of this study was to provide best practices and strategies for middle school principals that have been struggling to close the minority achievement gap in schools. Three Georgia middle school principals considered to be successful in closing the achievement gap were interviewed to determine the strategies and practices that they use to close the minority achievement gap. These practices and strategies were further examined to determine their effectiveness in the areas of reading and mathematics. The researcher used in-depth interviewing procedures through a structured interview format to encourage research participants to speak openly and candidly about the strategies and practices that they use to address the issue of the achievement gap in their schools. The interviews were audio-taped to assure accuracy of data given by the participants. Each participant was asked nine research questions derived from a thorough review of the literature to determine their perspectives of the achievement gap and the practices and strategies that they use to address the issue. The researcher discovered through the findings from the in-depth, structured interviews and an analysis of the data that the practices and strategies used by the selected Georgia middle school principals included a combination of similar, but routine 2 practices such as involving underachieving students in the process of improving their own academic achievement, offer additional assistance in reading and mathematics, incorporate minority students into gifted or honors classes, give common assessments, give teachers time for collaboration and professional learning to plan for student success, and provide differentiated instruction. Most importantly, these principals used data to make strategic decisions concerning the achievement of the students within their schools.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Education in Education Administration (Ed.D.)

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation (open access)

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Department of Leadership, Technology, and Human Development

Year dc:date.available

2006

Author dc:creator

• Johnson, Stacy Eugene

Contributors dc:contributor

• Walter Polka
• Ming Fang He
• Bettye Ray

• ETD
• Minority
• Achievement gap
• Opportunity gap
• Institutional racism
• Tracking
• Education gap
• Strategies
• Latinos
• Blacks
• Principals
• No Child Left Behind
• Middle schools
• Academic achievement

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/etd/233

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu:etd-1233