Teachers' perceptions regarding best practices for raising academic achievement of low socioeconomic students

This research study sought to gain insight into the opinions and perceptions of teachers regarding best practices that are designed to raise academic achievement in a Title I elementary school. This researcher distributed a survey to teachers to solicit their opinions and perceptions. The teachers surveyed were employed at a Title I elementary school in Central California. The survey was composed of 10 statements that the teachers rated using a Likert-type scale. The responses were statistically analyzed using a chi square goodness of fit. This study found that teachers perceive nine out of the ten best practices surveyed as either effective or strongly effective in increasing academic achievement of low socioeconomic students. However, the results of this study found that only 36.1% of the teachers surveyed perceived teacher created curriculum materials as either effective or strongly effective. Teachers need to be confident that the curriculum materials they are using will raise the academic achievement of their students. More research is needed in order to determine if there are significant differences in achievement between students who use teacher created curriculum materials and those who use published curriculum materials.