School administrators and educational policy makers have made a substantial effort to address the learning needs of students in Saint Martin, yet the achievement gap between students in Saint Martin and students in metropolitan France still persists. Risk factors such as family structure, socioeconomic status, immigration, and difficulty of integration, are well documented, but the role of proficiency in French on academic achievement has not really been explored. This quantitative, correlational study determined if there was any relationship between proficiency in French and academic achievement for students in Saint Martin. Performance on the history/geography and math standardized tests measured academic achievement. The scores on the French standardized test measured French proficiency. The convenience sample encompassed 222 students who had their national Brevet exam at the end of the academic year 2011-2012 and were in their last grade at two junior high schools in Saint Martin. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis was conducted to investigate the relationship between the French scores and the history/geography scores while controlling for relevant covariates (gender, school, number of languages spoken, family annual income, and number of children per household). The hierarchical multiple linear regression model was statistically significant, R[superscript 2] = 0.78, adjusted R[superscript 2] = 0.77, F (6, 215) = 129.9672, p <0.05. A second regression was conducted to investigate the relationship between the French scores and the math scores. The second hierarchical multiple linear regression model was also statistically significant, R[superscript 2] = 0.46, adjusted R[superscript 2] = 0.44, F (6, 215) = 30.5817, p <0.05. This indicated that there was a significant relationship between French proficiency and academic achievement. These results confirmed the findings of many researchers that French is a predictor of academic achievement in the French overseas territories. Increasing the number of hours that students have French classes per week may be recommended in order to increase proficiency in French. Future research may consider the assessment used for evaluating French proficiency, a mixed method approach to gauge teachers' perception, and analyzing data across multiple years. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]