Policy Correlates of Performance Among Georgia's Public School Systems

Abstract

Achievement scores among 149 of Georgia's school systems were analyzed byfirst examining the impact of demographic andsocioeconomic variables, and then the marginal impact of educational policy variables. Eleventh grade Iowa Tests of Basic Skills results served as the dependent variable in a series of multiple regression models and discriminant functions. A major object of the study was to assess the extent to which policy factors discriminate between school systems that exhibit test scores either substantially above or substantially below those predicted by a baseline demographic/SES model. The results reafirm the powerful influences of environment upon absolute school system performance, but also demonstrate the signrficant marginal contributions of several education policy variables. Education policies were found to discriminate powerfully between systems that performed signrficantfy above and those that perform signif-cant& below regression estimates based upon their demographidSES characters.