Urban school reform: The impact of whole -school reform on a specific population within a New Jersey Abbott school distric

This study has examined the impact and effects that whole school reform has had on a specific population within an identified Abbott School District. Whole School Reform has been in full implementation within the thirty identified New Jersey Abbott Schools for approximately four years. This study employed the strategies of a quantitative research design to explore the effects of Whole School Reform on the African American population of a specific Abbott District. The identified district has been in full implementation of the court ordered Whole School Reform initiative since (1999). This study examined the effects Whole School Reform implementation had on the predominately African American populated schools within the identified district, as opposed to schools with a predominately white or other ethnic group population. The identified district has implemented (3) specific Whole School Reform models within twenty-nine primary and elementary schools. This study compared the two predominate models of Comer, and Co-nect within twenty-six specific schools. Nine of the twenty-six schools have an African American population over 80 percent, therefore were used as proxy as an African American student populated school. The remaining seventeen schools had a majority White, Hispanic and other ethnic population, which served as the population designated as 'Other' in statistical comparisons. The study examined the effects the two Whole School Reform models had on mitigating the achievement gap along racial lines. It also examined the effects other variables such as socio-economics, rates of adverse behaviors, English language proficiency, and student mobility had on mitigating the test score gap. The dependent variable for the study was the standardized test results found within the New Jersey ESPA and GEPA standardized test. The study was premised around four research questions, supported by eight hypothesis, which gave varying conclusions on the effects of Whole School Reform implementation. Results included the premise that specific Whole School Reform models have a moderate effect on the mitigation of test score disparity along racial lines. This study concluded that race was the over bearing descriptive when achievement scores varied between students of differing ethnicity, specifically African American students. Base on the results of this study strategies must continue to include mitigating tools which acknowledge the socioeconomic and specific problems found within urban education, specifically that which applies to the predominately African American student population.