Affect and Advanced Placement: Change Over Time in Minority Learners’ Attitudes Toward School Achievement

• In Event: Multicultural/Multiethnic Education: Critical Perspectives

Abstract

The AP Challenge Program is designed to increase the success of minority students in AP courses and in college with a system of organized support structures for AP students, including a pre-AP, residential summer program; peer study groups; academic advising, writing, and self-advocacy skills instruction. Student Attitude Assessment Survey-Revised (McCoach & Siegle, 2003) results indicate that student perceptions of motivation and self-regulation decreased over the two-year intervention period; however, those decreases may be common for adolescents. Further investigation will provide guidance for efforts to investigate the effects of this type of intervention program on student attitudes in this population. Understanding the nature of how student perceptions change over the course of this intervention may help to close the excellence gap.

Authors

• Robert Todd Izzo, University of Virginia

• Carolyn M. Callahan, University of Virginia

• Michael S. Matthews, University of North Carolina - Charlotte

• Katharine Meyer, University of Virginia