(2009), yet faculty trust was included as an identified feature of academic optimism and thus the relationship of these two studies is made clear and the reliability of Smith and Hoy's (2007) study greatly increased. This study also did not take race into account, making it again less comprehensive and slightly less meaningful than Goddard et al. (2009).
Comparisons of race and of racial attitudes to academic achievement abound in the literature, and one interesting study found that the racial self-perception and identification of African-American males was highly related to academic achievement (McLaughlin et al. 2009). That is, different definitions and associations existed with these students' racial self-identities, and these differences correlated to different levels of academic achievement (McLaughlin et al. 2009). Though the specific item measured and analyzed was entirely different in this study, like Goddard et al. (2009) this shows that perception and attitude can counter the negative effect on academic achievement that minority status is generally observed to have, even when this perception is solely in the mind of the students (McLaughlin et al. 2009).
The effects of this perception and other environmental attitudes, according to another study utilizing university students (and assuming that the results could be generalized to school settings serving younger students), are much stronger for minority students than for white and economically advantaged individuals (Walton & Cohen 2007). When led to believe that they would not have many friends in an intellectual setting, black students showed greater feelings of not fitting in and demonstrated decreased potential while white students were not affected; when perceptions were reversed and feelings of not belonging were purposefully mitigated, black students improved their sense of belonging and performance considerably, whereas white students...
Again, this demonstrates that student self-perception has a great deal to do with academic achievement, as does the level of social and interpersonal support that students receive -- a finding also supported by Goddard 2009) (Walton & Cohen 2007).
Conclusion
All in all, current research suggests that the racial disparity in education is caused by what is essentially a simple problem, yet one that is enormously hard to solve. Perceptions of academic potential, social belonging, and racial identification must be shifted in a way that promotes the achievement of traditionally disadvantaged groups, and this will take a major concerted effort on the part of all educators and administrators. Goddard et al. (2009) specifically contributed a knowledge of the importance of trust in this regard, and hopefully when trust is established the other necessary perceptual changes will follow.
References
Fiscella, K. & Kitzman, H. (2009). "Disparities in Academic Achievement and Health: The Intersection of Child Education and Health Policy." Pediatrics 123(3), pp. 1073-80.
Goddard, R.; Salloum, S. & Berebitsky, D. (2009). "Trust as a Mediator of the Relationships Between Poverty, Racial Composition, and Academic Achievement: Evidence From Michigan's Public Elementary Schools." Educational administration quarterly 45(2), pp. 292-311.
McLaughlin, M.; Nasir, N. & Jones, A. (2009). "What Does It Mean to Be African-American? Constructions of Race and Academic Identity in an Urban Public High School." Journal of black psychology 46(1), pp. 73-114.
Smith, P. & Hoy, W. (2007) "Academic optimism and student achievement in urban elementary schools." Journal of Educational Administration 45(5), pp. 556-68.
Walton, G. & Cohen, G. (2007). "A Question of Belonging:…
