This study attempted to determine whether better predictions of school-level achievement scores than have been reported for big city school districts could be attained by determining whether concentrations of poverty and related social characteristics are related to achievement in such a way as to make it possible to identify specific threshold…

The relationship between neighborhood characteristics and achievement level was investigated in six metropolitan schools, after accounting for neighborhood type. Neighborhoods were classified into four types: middle socioeconomic status white, low status white, middle status black, and low status black. Additional neighborhood…

The purpose of this paper is to report data obtained with a questionnaire dealing with the neighborhood- and community-related perceptions of Greater Kansas City Area high school students in many different parts of that metropolitan area. The questionnaire elicits opinions on several discrete though related themes, and was pilot tested and first…

The links between sixth-grade reading achievement, race, and the socioeconomic status of schools and neighborhoods in the Kansas City School District (KCSD) from the 1950s to the present were examined. The data show that black students tended, as early as 1956, to be in poverty schools with low achievement and that this pattern has persisted. In…

Just as urban ecologists have shown that social behavior such as delinquency is related to spatial patterns, educational achievement should logically be related to socio-spatial patterns. Accordingly, the hypothesis of the present study is that school neighborhoods can be ecologically grouped so as to enhance the prediction of achievement. The…