Beating the odds: A low equalized assessed valuation elementary school with high standardized test scores

his mixed methods study examines what makes Bluffview Elementary School a success as measured by the ISAT, the mandated state test of Illinois. Despite national reports of achievement gaps and low test scores, Bluffview Elementary has shown sustained success in educating children. This paper reviews how Bluffview Elementary students are achieving success, and what similarities exist among other highly successful, low equalized assessed valuation (EAV) schools. This study utilized a meta-analysis from more than 20 studies reviewing successful schools to first identify which characteristics contribute to the success of a low EAV school. The studies, most of which examined elementary schools, focused on schools with students who achieved at higher levels than their demographics would predict.;This study mixed qualitative and quantitative methods to establish if a relationship existed between the characteristics of successful schools discovered in the review of literature and the characteristics that made Bluffview Elementary students achieve. The quantitative part examined one year of data provided from 1,078 K-5 and K-6 Elementary Schools in Illinois to establish if EAV can be used as a predictor of student success on the ISAT.;At the time of this writing, Bluffview was currently scoring 10.6 points better than expected on the ISAT based on the district's EAV of...