Individual and School Structural Effects on African American High School Students' Academic Achievement

  • Individual-Level Model:
  • Two of the school effort measures, school attachment and school commitment, were significantly and positively related to GPA. This indicates that students who display higher levels of effort in their schooling, as measured by school attachment (.42) and school commitment (.48), have higher GPAs.
  • Further, associations with positive peers (.12) and parent-child discussion (.20) were significant predictors. The direction of the effect suggests that frequent associations with positive peers and parent-child discussions are associated with higher GPA.
  • Contrary to expectations, school involvement was not significantly related to GPA. Also, parental school involvement and family SES were not significantly related to GPA.
  • Individual-level and School Structural Model:
  • After controlling for individual-level variables, only one of the six school structural variables had a significant effect on GPA: school cohesion (.014). Schools with greater cohesion (i.e., more positive interactions and trust among students and teachers) had higher average student GPAs.
  • School poverty, proportion non-white, school location, school size, and school social problems were not significantly associated with average GPA when school cohesion and individual-level predictors were taken into account.