The Hispanic student achievement gap: An exploratory study of student demographic variables that impact student achievement

The purpose of this study was to explore the lag in Hispanic student achievement compared to White student achievement in a suburban school district in the Phoenix-metropolitan area. The focus of the study was Hispanics because (1) the Hispanic population was growing exponentially and (2) Hispanics scored significantly lower on achievement tests than other ethnic groups. The study was a quantitative analysis of the relationship between student characteristics and achievement among 2007-2008 tenth-grade students' state assessment AIMS Math and Reading scale scores from Clarksville School District. Hispanics were the focus of the study and Whites were used as the group for comparison because Whites comprised the majority of the 2007-2008 tenth-grade AIMS population.;The most significant finding showed that the addition of the English proficiency variable had the largest negative effect on student achievement as measured by AIMS Math and Reading. Specifically, English learners (EL) scored significantly lower than English proficient (EP) students. The findings challenge school leaders to focus on English proficiency to increase Hispanic student achievement.;The researcher conducted an extensive review of the literature regarding the influence of student characteristics related to their achievement. Ethnicity, gender and English proficiency were identified as the most salient features associated with overall student achievement. Descriptive statistics confirmed the effect of ethnicity, gender, and English proficiency on student achievement demonstrated in the empirical literature. The method of analysis included frequency distributions to show intervals of data, as well as data analysis of student achievement scores according to the NCLB model as a point of comparison. There was a linear regression analysis of the student characteristic variables as well as special education and individual high school variables to predict scale scores for tenth-grade students in Clarksville School District. In addition, interaction terms were reported where the introduction of such terms were both statistically significant and improved the fit of the model.