A Qualitative Study Examining Staff and Parent Perceptions of Closing the Achievement Gap for Intermediate Elementary Students in Povert

Closing the achievement gap has been an ongoing topic for educational scholars for many years. Because of the deficiency of parent support in poverty-based demographics, impoverished students in America enter the public school system academically behind their counterparts. This leads to the achievement gap widening for many students who lack the academic skills necessary to move forward. The purpose of this qualitative case study is to discover what the parent understands in pertaining to what is needed to help support their students who fit in the poverty-based demographics and provide the necessary academic support to close the achievement gap. Through this case study, a critical lens will be employed to investigate the perception that parents of students who live in poverty have what makes students academically successful and what can be done to close the achievement gap. The site of this study will be an elementary campus in the Greater Dallas area with teachers and parents of students in the 4th, who participate in the free/reduced lunch program. Qualitative data will be collected using parent/teacher interactive interviews, observations, parent satisfaction self-reports, semi-structured interviews with parents, as well as, face-to-face meetings, and journal entries from parents. The information collected will be analyzed by using analysis strategies such as thinking about rival explanations, relying on the theoretical propositions that lead to the study, and developing a case description; in which an interpretation will then be conveyed in a narrative case study (Yin, 2014). This study will allow parent's perceptions to be broadened with options to assist in closing the achievement gap with their students. Likewise, through the conduction of this qualitative case study the research that currently exists on ways to close the achievement gap will be further strengthening to not only indicate that parent support is paramount, but actually pinpoint the strategies that are beneficial in helping to close the achievement gap for student who are at risk of academic failure.