Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Objectives: The purpose of this research is to explore factors that contribute to academic success for students in low-income communities to ensure a more equitable experience for all students. We hypothesized that quality teachers and an engaging, rigorous curriculum would assist students just as those resources aided students in other research.

Methods: The population for the study was schools in the St. Louis District. A total of eighteen (n=18) high schools were used. The study used a cross-sectional research design and data was obtained from secondary sources i.e. school district websites. The data was analyzed at the 0.05 level of significance using SPSS version 23.

Results: There were significant correlations between graduation rate and administrators salary r(16) = .419, p = .047 as well as between graduation rate and attendance r(16) = .642, p = .003. There were no correlations between the remaining variables and graduation rates.

Conclusion: The factors related to school success needs to be explored into detail and also student outcomes as measured by graduation rates may require more empirical support. The goal of education should therefore be to train people to reason productively leading to more effective school reforms and an improvement in the lives of students and teachers.