Predictors of academic achievement among African American students in an urban middle school setting

The purpose of this study was to test the effectiveness of school reform on student's academic achievement by analyzing the secondary data set before and after school reform has taken place. The longitudinal study examined student data over a three year consecutive period. In doing so, this study examined the relationship between school reform and student achievement in literacy and mathematics among African American students in the middle school. The three surveys of student's motivation, perception of school learning environment and perception of teaching effectiveness was administrated to the eighth grade students in school. The relationship between student motivation, perception of school learning environment, perception of teaching effectiveness, gender, parents' educational level and academic achievement was explored. The selected school has a large percentage of African American students, and was designated by New York State as Schools In Need of Improvement (SINI). A cohort of 145 African American eighth grade students' records was used for data analysis. The student socio-economic status, parent education and gender were treated as a covariate variable. Drawing from the tenets of the social cognition learning model, the cognitive learning theory, and the self efficacy theory were the underpinnings of this study.;School reform was introduced via flexible scheduling, academic support and interdisciplinary teaching pedagogical practice and implemented for the 2005-2006, 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 school years. Through paired-samples t-test, a significant difference in English scores was identified throughout three year period. English scores improved across the three years from an average of 620.52 in 2006 to an average of 649.96 in 2007, and 676.99 in 2008. Math scores improved across the three years from an average of 611.30 in 2006 to an average of 641.32 in 2007, and 676.67 in 2008. Through repeated measure, a significant difference in Math and English scores was identified throughout the three-year time period. Results indicated a significant within-subjects effect for English and Mathematics. This mirrored the results from the t-tests which again indicated significant changes in English and Mathematics scores across the three years. Further, this provided strong support for the claim that school reform improves African American students' academic achievement in English and Mathematics in an urban middle school setting.;Parent education, gender, and SES were included in these analyses as covariates, while the learning environment, teaching effectiveness, and motivation were the predictors. Through implementing multiple linear regressions, results attained through the regression models suggested that a significant relationship did not exist between student scores in English and Math scores from 2008 and with the model containing the three covariates and predictors.;The information presented in this study assist educational leaders to identify factors that attribute to student achievement in African American students in urban middle school settings. This study also helps prepare our future leaders to use these predictors and/or create others based on their respective school communities to implement as strategies to improve academic improvement. Through examining the results of this study and identifying significant predictors, it is the researcher expectation that educators will use data to analyze, inform decisions and evaluate instructional and organizational practices while institutionalizing best practices to improve African American students' outcomes in middle schools.