Students' Perceptions of Academic Efficacy and School Supports: A Mismatch with School Demographics

Authors

  • Jason T Hurwitz University of Arizona
  • Kris Bosworth University of Arizona
  • Regina Deil-Amen University of Arizona
  • Cecilia Rios-Aguilar Claremont Graduate University
  • J. Robert Hendricks University of Arizona
  • Eliane B. Rubenstein-Avila University of Arizona

Keywords:

college and career readiness, academic efficacy, school supports, high school

Abstract

This exploratory study aimed to (a) identify students beliefs about their abilities and school environments to achieve their college and career aspirations, (b) group schools by students perceptions, and (c) contrast this grouping with grouping by school-level demographics. This secondary analysis examined items from the County Youth Survey administered to 11th-graders (N = 3,751) at 17 local schools. School size and racial and socioeconomic statistics comprised the publicly available data. Principal components analysis identified 17 college and career readiness items representing two dimensions of student perceptions: School Supports and Academic Efficacy. Cluster analysis revealed that schools grouped by these dimensions differed substantially from the demographic groupings.

Author Biographies

Jason T Hurwitz, University of Arizona

Assistant Research Scientist at the Center for Health Outcomes and PharmacoEconomic Research, in the College of Pharmacy at The University of Arizona

Kris Bosworth, University of Arizona

Professor and Smith Endowed Chair

Educational Policy Studies and Practice

College of Education

Regina Deil-Amen, University of Arizona

Associate Professor at the Center for the Study of Higher Education at the University of Arizona

Cecilia Rios-Aguilar, Claremont Graduate University

Associate Professor in the School of Educational Studies at Claremont Graduate University

J. Robert Hendricks, University of Arizona

Associate Professor Emeritus in the Department of Educational Policy Studies & Practice at the University of Arizona

Eliane B. Rubenstein-Avila, University of Arizona

Associate Professor in the Department of Teaching, Learning, & Sociocultural Studies at the University of Arizona

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Published

2015-10-15

How to Cite

Hurwitz, J. T., Bosworth, K., Deil-Amen, R., Rios-Aguilar, C., Hendricks, J. R., & Rubenstein-Avila, E. B. (2015). Students’ Perceptions of Academic Efficacy and School Supports: A Mismatch with School Demographics. Current Issues in Education, 18(3). Retrieved from https://cie.asu.edu/ojs/index.php/cieatasu/article/view/1388

Issue

Vol. 18 No. 3 (2015)

Section

Articles

License

Authors retain copyright without restrictions. Unless otherwise indicated, from 2021 all articles are published under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA license. For more information visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/. Articles published prior to 2021 used a CC-BY-NC-SA license.