Academic underachievement of students from disadvantaged backgrounds is an ongoing and unresolved problem. Schools serving vulnerable communities often fail to meaningfully engage their students who are often exposed to significant family and environmental adversities. However, where the educational landscape is overwhelmed with neoliberal…

This collaborative autoethnography explores the experiences of two art therapists who designed and implemented art therapy programs for achievement gaps in schools in Korea. We gathered autoethnographic data and contextualized information within the socio-cultural and institutional framework of Korean society. Four discussion points emerged: (1)…

Not all students are dealt the same cards in life and some seem to have the deck stacked against them. Those who are dealt a particularly difficult hand to play include homeless, foster care, and juvenile justice students. As professionals who often know the most about mental health, service delivery, interdisciplinary collaboration, and crisis…

It is imperative to note that the study reported on attempted to reimagine a link between underachievement and attrition in curriculum implementation. The contextual factors that affected achievement and resulted in attrition were worth further scrutiny. The study further reported the results of a pilot study conducted in the Western Cape, South…

This qualitative case study examined the perceived effects of teachers' low expectations for disadvantaged students' academic achievement. The study also focused on the effects of the teacher's preconceived judgments toward the socioeconomic status of students, particularly those from high poverty communities. The purpose of this proposed…

Title I, Part A, Title II, Part A, and Title IV, Part A funds are provided to the Houston Independent School District (HISD) through the 2015 reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), also known as the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). All three funds focus on enhancing student achievement: Title I, Part A…

This research draws on qualitative data collected in Aotearoa New Zealand over a sixmonth period to examine the ways in which participants in Teach First New Zealand (TFNZ), an affiliate of Teach for All, discuss issues of poverty and educational underachievement in their teaching contexts. Findings from this study suggest that broad discursive…

The subgroup requirements for accountability in the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) were designed to reveal underperformance of disadvantaged groups that could otherwise be hidden in aggregate averages. Both NCLB and its successor, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), left the choice of minimum subgroup size at the school level (n-size) for…

Young men are significantly less likely to enter higher education than young women, and they are also more likely to drop out and less likely to achieve a highly-graded degree. There are many causes and the disparity in educational achievement starts long before higher education. Yet, while this issue is better understood than it was, there has…

Community schools are becoming increasingly popular. They aim to enhance children's educational performance by offering extended educational and social services. As community schools mainly focus on disadvantaged children, this study evaluates the effects of community schooling on the educational outcomes of these pupils. We focus on care pupils…

The state of tertiary education in South Africa is not adequately meeting the needs of its populace. The system in place does not effectively nor appropriately target the racial group of students which forms the democratic majority. This paper portrays the reasons why these students are not succeeding on the basis of a mismatch between their…

The author discusses the boarding school model as a schooling alternative to improve life chances for disadvantaged youth, particularly African American youth, by positively meeting their social and educational needs. Bourdieu, Coleman, and other social scientists purported that these needs can be better met by exposing students to social and…

Schools frequently increase the instructional time to improve primary school children's math and reading skills. There is, however, little evidence that math and reading skills are effectively improved by these instruction-time increases. This study evaluates "Playing for Success" (PfS), an extended school day program for underachieving…

On the basis of a secondary analysis of survey data collected from 1,872 secondary school principals in the 2005-2006 School Survey on Crime and Safety, we examined the frequency of and reasons for severe disciplinary actions and the relationship between school characteristics and severe disciplinary actions. We found that severe disciplinary…

Prevalent definitions of the achievement gap conceptualize it as the difference in achievement between white and minority students. Recent research, however, points to numerous gaps both within and between groups. This study explores a further conceptualization of achievement gaps by looking at the "underachievement gap"--the difference…