Economically Disadvantaged Students Achieving at High Levels: A Case Study

Joshua C Anisansel, Fordham University

Abstract

The purpose of this case study was to explain how the students identified as Economically Disadvantaged (ED) by the New York State Education Department (NYSED) in Valley Stream District #30 outperformed similarly identified students in Nassau County who attended schools in districts with similar (or lower) concentrations of poverty. The study focused on the school district because it provided an opportunity to use poverty concentration as an independent variable and a unit of analysis, and it also intended to yield a blueprint to influence the efforts of central-office administrators in order to position them to better serve students from poverty. The district’s ED students ranked 6th out of 42 districts in Nassau County on a metric that ranked the academic performance of ED students using three years’ (2012-13, 2013-14, 2014-15) of assessment scores from the grades 3-6 NYS ELA and mathematics assessments. The themes of community, strategic planning, cultural responsiveness, equity, leadership, parental involvement, and teachers and teaching all surfaced to explain how ED students in Valley Stream District #30 outperformed the majority of their peers in districts with similar or lower concentrations of poverty.

Subject Area

Educational leadership

Recommended Citation

Anisansel, Joshua C, "Economically Disadvantaged Students Achieving at High Levels: A Case Study" (2017). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI10280009.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI10280009

Share

COinS