California Educational Research Association: How Urban California Educators Engage Academic Optimism to Maximize Equity in Student Learning Within Low-Socioeconomic-Status Schools

• In Event: The Consortium of State and Regional Educational Research Associations: Distinguished Paper Session 1

Abstract

This mixed-method phenomenological study reports findings of 144 urban California educational leaders’ and teachers’ views about the identified effects academic optimism has on supporting equitable growth in student learning within ten low SES schools. Hoy, Tartar, & Woolfolk-Hoy (2006) examined how academic optimism was a general demonstrable second order construct of
successful urban schools. This study seeks to compare the findings of Hoy, et al. to that of 144 California TK-8 school leaders’ and teachers’ perceptions regarding both the presence of academic optimism at ten low SES school sites, and its effects on equitable growth in student learning across student groups.

Authors

• Teri Anne Marcos, National University

• Donald Wise, California State University - Fresno

• Susan Belenardo, University of California - Irvine

• William Loose, Azusa Pacific University

• Wayne Padover, National University