The purpose of this study was to assess some of thernprominent factors that are supposed to cause disparity inrnacademic performance in eight selected elementary schoolrnpupils in Eastern Gojjam r egl on . The study involves 360rnrandomly selected students .rnThe results suggested that the exposure o f students tornurban-rural settings remarkably contributed to academicrnperformance differences which in turn, caused difference inrnscholastic achievements between them. Moreover, sex, attitudernand teachers' expectation were found to affect studentsrnachievement where as family educational background was notrnthat much important in academic performance of students.rnThe practical implications of these results to the policyrnand practices of education are indicated.