California Urban School Leaders' and Teachers' Engagement of Academic Optimism to Maximize Student Learning and Performance Within 10 Low-Socioeconomic-Status Schools

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.