The Five Factors!

"So, two final numbers: Two decades, five factors. Two decades have passed since Barton wrote 'America's Smallest School: The Family.' He has estimated that about 90 percent of the difference in schools' proficiencies can be explained by five factors: the number of days students are absent from school, the number of hours students spend watching television, the number of pages read for homework, the quantity and quality of reading material in the students' homes -- and, much the most important, the presence of two parents in the home. Public policies can have little purchase on these five, and least of all on the fifth." - George F. Will, The Washington Post, 29 August 2010

1. number of days students are absent from school
2. number of hours students spend watching television
3. number of pages read for homework
4. quantity and quality of reading material in the students' homes 
5. presence of two parents in the home 

Public policy may not be able to do much about these, but Murray Academy can! Well, not the last one, but we can certainly work on the others.