Center for Community School Partnerships

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Executive Summary
This study provides additional information about California's High Performing, High Poverty and/or High Minority Schools, and links their status as High Performing to the presence of learning supports. Although it is not possible to make strong causal claims about the effectiveness of learning supports, there is evidencethat they are related to academic performance. The report provides guidance in five areas:

1. The identification of a useful set of criteria for defining California high performing schools. In addition to the criteria used by the Education Trust in their report Dispelling the Myth in California (2001), more stringent optional criteria have been devised and explored based on the school's accomplishment in meeting Academic Performance Index (API) targets.

2. The identification of an appropriate set of criteria for California high minority and high poverty schools. Besides looking at absolute numbers of children from minority groups, and children on free lunch status, we have considered these groups in quartiles based on California demographics. We have also considered examining the percentage of English learners. All of these variables might be used in identifying schools with high achievement levels and success in meeting targets on the API with traditionally underperforming students.

3. The identification of a comparison set of schools based on new criteria for high performing, high poverty and/or high minority schools. By applying the above criteria we have identified a small number of schools in California that have done a remarkable job in promoting the academic performance of their students.

4. The analysis of factors that differentiate high functioning schools with high rates of poverty and minority enrollments with learning supports from typical California schools and comparable schools that are not high performing. This report documents how Healthy Start sites within those schools identified as successful by Education Trust are providing learning supports to their children and families.

5. The survey of school informants where learning supports are in place and a comparison group of schools where learning supports are not present. This report provides details about learning supports available in typical schools and in schools who are successful with minority children and children from low income homes. It also provides details about the organization and details of learning supports in these schools and in schools, which have been awarded Healthy Start grants.

The results of this study provide us with the identification of a small set of schools, which should be studied in detail. These schools have made learning supports available in greater number than the average California school, and it would be important to study these schools in greater detail to learn which learning supports and which other features of the school seem to be making the difference in making these schools successful with high poverty, high minority or both high poverty and high minority youth.