With ever increasing challenges being placed on the public education system, student academic achievement has become even more important. The new Race to the Top (RT3) program, being implemented by the U.S. Department of Education, holds educators in public schools nationwide accountable for their students’ academic successes or failures by determining that a portion of their yearly evaluation score is based on the amount of academic growth of their students. Due to the new format of evaluations, a concern for increasing student understanding, therefore increasing student academic achievement, has led to an examination of factors that may be affecting students’ academic achievement test scores. Criterion References Competency Test scores for third- and fifth-grade students from J. L. Lomax Elementary, in Valdosta, Georgia, were analyzed and compared to school-based factors to determine what, if any, relationship was present. Cross-tabulation analysis of the students and teachers analyzed, exposed distinct demographic categories with regard to race and gender. Correlation analysis revealed that many school-based factors, such as teacher attendance, school budget, and class sizes did not affect the academic achievement score of third-grade and fifth-grade classes. However, student misbehavior occurrences in the classroom did contribute to lower scores on the reading portion of the standardized Criterion Referenced Competency Test. This positive correlation was tested for strength of association and revealed that increased rates of student misbehavior in the classroom were a reliable predictor of decreased standardized reading test scores.

This dissertation, “Factors Affecting Student Achievement on the Criterion Referenced Competency Test at J. L. Lomax Elementary,” by Lauren Freeman Whittaker, is approved by