Student Academic Optimism: a confirmatory factor analysis
| Published date | 15 March 2013 |
| Date | 15 March 2013 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/09578231311304689 |
| Pages | 150-175 |
| Author | Megan Tschannen‐Moran,Regina A. Bankole,Roxanne M. Mitchell,Dennis M. Moore |
| Subject Matter | Education |
Student Academic Optimism:
a confirmatory factor analysis
Megan Tschannen-Moran
The School of Education, The College of William and Mary,
Williamsburg, Virginia, USA
Regina A. Bankole
Riverside Unified School District, Riverside, California, USA
Roxanne M. Mitchell
Department of Educational Leadership, Policy, and Technology Studies,
The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA, and
Dennis M. Moore, Jr
Department of Pupil Personnel Services, Norfolk Public Schools,
Norfolk, Virginia, USA
Abstract
Purpose – This research aims to add to the literature on Academic Optimism, a composite measure
composed of teacher perceptions of trust in students, academic press, and collective efficacy by
exploring a similar set of constructs from the student perceptive. The relationships between student
trust in teachers, student perceptions of academic press, and student identification with school were
examined as well as how they were individually and collectively related to student achievement in the
schools in an urban school district.
Design/methodology/approach – This study assessed the perceptions of students in 49
elementary, middle, and high schools in one urban district. The measures used included the Student
Trust in Teachers Survey (Adams and Forsyth), the Identificationwith School Questionnaire (Voelkl),
and an adaptation of Academic Press (Hoy, Hannum and Tschannen-Moran). Confirmatory factor
analysis was employed to explore whether these three observed variables would form a latent variable
called Student Academic Optimism. Finally, the relationship of Academic Optimism to student
achievement, controlling for SES, was examined using SEM.
Findings – Strong and significant relationships were found between all three of the
observed variables. A CFA analysis confirmed that they formed a latent variable the authors
called Student Academic Optimism. Stud ent Academic Optimism had a significant direct
effect on student achievement (b¼0.73, po0.01) while SES (percent of students eligible for the
free and reduced lunch program) had a significant negative effect on student achievement (b ¼0.37,
po0.01). Together student academic optimism and SES explained 67 percent of the variance in
student achievement with student academic optimism making the largest contribution to the
explanation.
Social implications – The findings that Student Academic Optimism was unrelated to SES and that
Student Academic Optimism has a significant effect on achievement over and above the effectsof SES
and student demographic characteristics leads the authors to consider the possibility that SES may
not be as influential as once thought when other conditions of the school environment are taken into
consideration.
Originality/value – This study makes a unique contribution to the literature by focusing on the
perspectives of students and by linking the measures of three important dynamics within schools to
form a new construct: Student Academic Optimism.
Keywords Student trust, Student academic press, Identification with school, Achievement,
Urban schools, Schools, Students
Paper type Research paper
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0957-8234.htm
Received 23 November 2011
Revised 7 June 2012
2 October 2012
9 October 2012
Accepted 16 October 2012
Journal of Educational
Administration
Vol. 51 No. 2, 2013
pp. 150-175
rEmeraldGroup Publishing Limited
0957-8234
DOI 10.1108/09578231311304689
150
JEA
51,2
Students’ attitudes about school have been found to predict their investment in
learning and long-term growth in achievement (Ladd and Dinella, 2009). In some
school settings, students enjoy high-trust relationships with their teachers, and this
trust seems likely to foster more constr uctive attitudes on the part of students. There
are schools where students perceive that academic success is important and honored in
their school while in others investing the effort for academic achievement is not highly
regarded. Furthermore, some school environments create conditions where most
students come to value school and feel that they belong while in other settings students
are more reluctant to affiliate with schools. Wesuspect that these three sets of attitudes
are related to one another and that together they contribute to higher levels of
achievement. The purpose of this study is to build upon the research base to examine
the relationship between student trust in teac hers, student perceptions of academic
press (SAP), and student identification with school to explore whether they
covary closely enough to form a composite construct we call student academic
optimism. Furthermore, we sought to explore the effect of this construct on a measu re
of student achievement.
Student trust in teachers
Over the past two decades, the construct of trust has been increasin gly studied
by organizational theorists and more recently, in relation to schools. Schools depend
upon members’ mutually interdependent relationships in order to function
successfully (Bryk and Schneider, 2002). Thus, the construct of trust provides a lens
with which to examine relationships among members of school communities and
organizational outcomes.
Defining trust
Trust has been a challenging construct for researc hers to define because it is
multifaceted. People use multiple criteria simultaneously as they make trust judgments
of people they interact with. Furthermore, tr ust is dynamic, meaning that the level of
trust in a relationship can change in an instant with the revelation of a betrayal
(Tschannen-Moran, 2004). The definition of trust used in this study was the five-facet
model of trust conceptualized by Hoy and Tschannen-Moran (1999): trust is a
willingness to be vulnerable based on confidence that the other party is benevolent,
honest, open, reliable, and competent.
Vulnerability. When people are in situations of interdependence such that they
cannot achieve valued outcomes without the involvement of others, whether they can
trust their partners becomes a matter of impo rtance. The vulnerability created by
interdependence provokes an assessment of trust-relevant aspects of the other party’s
character and behavior. Students are vulnerable to their teachers because teachers
control students’ access to the knowledge and skills at the heart of education, and they
have the means to coerce or punish students if they choose.
Benevolence. Benevolence is expressed as a generalized sense of good will toward
the other person and a caring about the relationship (Baier, 1986). It fosters “confidence
that one’s well-being or something one cares about will be protected by the trusted
person or group” (Hoy and Tschannen-Moran, 1999, p. 187). Students look to their
teachers to act in their best interest in both general and specific ways.
Honesty. This facet of trust refers to the truthfulness of one’s accounts of
occurrences, owning one’s behavior, and following through on statements of future
action (Tschannen-Moran and Hoy, 2000). As students build trust with teachers, they
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