Academic achievement of African American middle school students in selected rural and non-rural schools in the Pee Dee

In the court case of Abbeville County and Others Versus the State of South Carolina, the plaintiffs emphatically proclaim that children who attend schools in rural school districts are receiving an inadequate education compared to students who attend inner city schools. There are eight plaintiff school districts in this court case. Four of those school districts are located in the Pee Dee region of South Carolina (Our Covenant, 2004).;Many factors impact a student's academic performance in the classroom. According to the Review of the Literature the quality of education that students are receiving are due to several factors: Child's home environment, teacher support, peer influence, and or the socio-economic status of the family. It should be noted that students of color are making significant progress academically; however, they are still lagging behind their Caucasian classmates on standardized test such as South Carolina's Palmetto Achievement Challenge Test (PACT).;The purpose of this research was to investigate the impact of socio-economic status, number of parents in the home, and school location of African American eight grade students' PACT English Language Arts and PACT Mathematics standardized test scores and proficiency levels. The research data was collected from 1,221 African-American eighth grade students attending rural and non-rural schools in the Pee Dee region of South Carolina. Six research questions were formulated for this investigation. Is there a significant difference in the PACT English Language Arts (ELA) and PACT Math test scores and performance level of African American 8th grade students who attend rural schools and non rural schools? This research also investigated the possibility of a significant difference between PACT ELA and PACT Math test scores and performance levels between low social economic status and the student's social economic status. The study further examined the existence of any significant difference between African American 8th grade students PACT ELA and PACT Math scores and performance levels and the number of parents in the home.;A written request to use student information for this research project was sent to district superintendents in rural and non rural school districts in the Pee Dee Region of South Carolina. Once permission was granted, student data was retrieved from each school's SASI (School Administrative Student Information) database.;The Analysis of Variance procedures, Chi-square, and T-test were utilized to determine if there was a significant difference and where the difference occurred. The finding showed a significant difference in the ELA test scores, and proficiency levels between students who attend rural and non rural schools. The data also indicated a significant relationship between school location, socioeconomic status, and PACT math test scores, and PACT math proficiency levels.