The importance of community in public school success: Community engagement and high school performance in Florida

This research examines whether extensive community engagement activities are associated with increased institutional-level public high-school performance controlling for contextual factors and any regional nesting effect. Analyzing community-level data for 302 traditional Florida public high schools, three multiple linear regression (MLR) analyses are performed for dependent variables representing standardized testing-related metrics (FCAT factors score), non-standardized testing-related metrics (Non-FCAT factors score), and adequate yearly progress (AYP). For each analysis, community-level socioeconomic factors are significantly associated with institutional-level performance, however county-level nesting effect only shows a small significant association with the FCAT factors score. Achieving the Florida Five Star School award, which recognizes a wide range of family and community engagement criteria, is found to have a significant positive association with both the FCAT factors score and Non-FCAT factors score, controlling for socioeconomic and other contextual factors. Despite no significant association found with the final performance indicator, AYP, the results suggest that intensive community engagement practices may improve institutional-level academic performance.