For Immediate Release: September 26, 2002

Proven Methods and Curricula Produce High Student Achievement

San Francisco, CA — Low-income, racially diverse schools are succeeding through proven methods and overcoming California's overall low rate of achievement, according to They Have Overcome: High-Poverty, High-Performing Schools in California, a new study by the Pacific Research Institute.

“This study confirms that poverty and racial diversity are not barriers to excellence,” said author Lance Izumi, director of PRI’s Center for School Reform.

The authors interviewed principals and teachers from eight high-performing elementary schools that serve low-income, minority students. These schools have managed to succeed at high levels despite conditions of poverty, racial diversity, and limited English proficiency. The authors sought to discover why these schools prospered while others with similar demographics failed.

Their principals attribute the success to a willingness to buck fashionable trends in favor of practical, effective, and proven methods for improving student achievement. These include:

• Empirically proven research-based curricula
• Empirically proven research-based teaching methods
• The comprehensive use of state academic content standards
• Use of frequent assessment, for both students and teachers
• Standards-based professional development that emphasizes subject matter

“If all schools, their districts, and the state adopted these strategies the quality of education for California’s children would rise measurably,” said Lance Izumi. “The next step should be to replicate this successes in all underachieving schools in the state.”

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About PRI
For 28 years, the Pacific Research Institute (PRI) has championed freedom, opportunity, and individual responsibility through free-market policy solutions. PRI is a non-profit, non-partisan organization. www.pacificresearch.org.