Date of Award

1-1-2023

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

College/School/Department

Department of Educational Policy and Leadership

Content Description

1 online resource (xv, 273 pages)

Dissertation/Thesis Chair

Kathryn S. Schiller

Committee Members

Gilbert A. Valverde, Teniell L. Trolian

Keywords

Achievement Gaps, Expectations, Impact of Race, Parental Expectations, Standardized Assessments, Teacher Expectations, Educational tests and measurements, Academic achievement

Subject Categories

Educational Leadership

Abstract

EXPECTATIONS FOR SUCCESS IMPACT ON ACHIEVEMENTABSTRACT The intransigence of the achievement gaps in schools in this nation and in the school districts in which I served as a building administrator or district support staff member was the motivation for conducting this examination of the role of expectations for success relative to achievement on assessments. This study investigated the possible associations of how different categories of expectations for success, racial demographics, and school contexts may provide insight into persistence of racially identified achievement gaps and in confounding efforts to narrow those gaps. In addition, this study differed from numerous studies, some reviewed within in this study, that only focused on perceived expectations instead of actual expectations. Furthermore, by including other racial subgroups in the analysis, this study differentiated itself from the propensity of many previous studies that have exclusively focused on the Black–White achievement gap. Examination of racial subgroups provided a more in-depth picture of the role of expectations in a student’s early years of high school (i.e., 10th grade) through the consideration of the dynamics within broader racial subgroups. This study found a substantive association of actual teacher expectations along with race and achievement. From a theoretical perspective, this study expanded upon Wigfield and Eccles’s (2000) expectancy–value theory of achievement motivation, which was intentionally developed as a model for achievement in the mathematics domain to investigate the role expectancies and values may have in influencing achievement choices. This study relied on theory to analyze quantitative data collected from 15,362 students and 752 schools contained in the ELS:2002 national dataset from the National Center for Education Statistics Secondary Longitudinal Studies Program, which is the primary statistical agency of the U.S. Department of Education. Descriptive statistical analysis using SPSS and hierarchical linear modeling (HLM v.8.1) statistical programs were used to conduct analysis of the ELS:2002 data. The use of hierarchical multivariate regression analysis provided a multilevel school context instead of a basic linear regression analysis. Nevertheless, analyses of the selected expectations variables inclusive of teachers’ actual expectations offered evidence of more substantial explanations of relative change of outcomes than students’ own expectations, perceived expectations of teachers, or actual expectations of parents. In addition, after race and actual teacher expectations, the constructed instructional strategies of rigor and motivation represented by teachers pressing students to succeed had the most substantial school-level positive association with increases in the 12th grade mathematics assessment. Furthermore, a major divergence from past research in the literature reviewed showed previous studies did not integrate an investigation of school-based instructional strategy in examination of the imputations of multiple types of expectations and race. Finally, Hispanic and Black race offered evidence of negative relationships with performance, while White and more substantively Asian race showed evidence of greatest positive relationship with higher scores. Thus, there may be greater relevance of the Asian–White gaps in comparison to the Black–White gap. In conclusion, an understanding of the quantitative dynamics of the relationships may lead to development of strategies to effectively narrow the racial achievement gaps, resulting in more equitable outcomes. Definitive evidence was found that expectations of teachers mattered, race mattered, and the context of schoolwide instructional strategies mattered. This study was intended to fill a gap of past research that focused on perceived expectations because much of previous research had focused on perceived expectations. Future policies and practices may need to reflect actual expectations of students’ mathematics teachers as the success of their students is associated with substantial changes in the achievement scores of their students.

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