Since the 1990's, schools across the United States have been held accountable for increased student learning. Increased use of growth-based accountability models and a lack of clarity on what each model measures have resulted in a need for additional research focused on the real-world implications for teacher agency and school accountability. The accuracy of growth models to measure student learning rather than socio-economic or grade-level readiness skills, increases the likelihood teachers will find the data meaningful. The problem is how well student performance measures reflect student learning or non-instructional factors. The purpose of this ex post facto, quantitative study was to examine the influence SES, school structure, and the vertical scale on meeting state standards using elementary school performance data from the 2014 State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness in reading. Affluent schools were found to be eight times more likely to meet the growth measure and 46 times more likely to meet the status measure than non-affluent schools. Schools with two or more growth cycles were found to be 4.4 times more likely to meet the standard than non-affluent schools. Multi-level modeling reflected significant differences across grade levels based on the nonlinear Texas vertical scale. The results of the study indicated that the addition of a growth measure into the Texas accountability system increased how well school effectiveness was reported. The results also found influence of factors outside the control of the teachers which tend to decrease the meaningfulness and use of the data by teachers. Continued research into the various growth model designs and further exploration of the Texas nonlinear vertical scale at the student level to determine if the trends identified in this study result in actualized differences for students or schools were made. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]