text: what are the causes of poor performance in high schools?   *poverty. it has been proven statistically that disadvantaged student do much more poorly than those in richer schools.  *too-large teacher-to-student ratio  *poor teachers, lax teaching license/credentials standards.  *drug use, depression, add, lack of sufficient counseling/special needs teachers and attention.  *pressures to keep passing students who really aren't ready to pass. most developed countries would be shocked to know how many high school graduates can't locate japan on map, read at a 7th grade reading level, or don't even know when this country or world war 1 started. :/