A study was done of student achievement and its relation to family and community poverty in light of 20 years of education reform and Chapter 1 funding since 1966. The study used the following three long-term studies of American high school students, in which measures of achievement and socioeconomic standing are meant to be comparable among different cohorts of students: (1) the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972, which measured data for approximately 19,000 high school students; (2) the High School and Beyond Study, which measured the sophomore and senior classes of 1980 and included approximately 58,000 students; and (3) the National Education Longitudinal Survey of 1988, which measured approximately 25,000 students. The results indicate that the most potent factors in student achievement in 1972 in reading were level of parents' education, time spent on homework, non-minority racial status, and parental income. In 1988, the most potent factors were parents' educational level, non-minority status, family income, time spent on homework, and being female. For mathematics achievement, the most important factors in 1972 included non-minority status, being male, parental education, time spent on homework, and parental income. In 1988, they included parental education, non-minority status, family income, and time spent on homework. The only factor that seemed to change in importance was gender, although this finding may be due to the different ages tested. Included are 1 table and 10 references. (JB)