- Latinos’ and Blacks’ are more optimistic and more pro-school in segregated-minority schools, especially when these schools also employ many minority teachers.
- Positive effects of segregated-minority schools on Blacks’ and Latinos’ belief reduce the Black-White and Latino-White gaps in achievement.
- Results suggest that Whites, Blacks, and Latinos all benefit (their test scores) from having higher beliefs, regardless of the type of schools.
- Blacks’ and Latinos’ relatively high beliefs consistently shrink the black-white and Latino-white gaps in scores on math a nd reading tests.
- All else being equal, Blacks and Latinos are more apt to have high beliefs than are Whites, regardless of gender.
- Model shows larger White-Black differences in educational aspirations between females than between males.
- Models show that Blacks and Latinos are more likely to have high beliefs than are similar Whites in separate-White schools and that Blacks’ and Latinos’ odds of having high beliefs are often greater in mixed schools and always greater in separate-minority schools than in separate-white schools.
- Whites’ beliefs are largely independent of school type, while Blacks’ and Latinos’ beliefs tend to be relatively optimistic and pro-school in segregated-minority schools that employ many minority teachers.
- It appears that high beliefs are less effective for Black and Latinos than they are for Whites in separate-White schools, but high beliefs usually have positive effects on all the different groups of students.
- Relative to Whites in separate-White schools, Blacks and Latinos attending separate-White schools benefit the east from differences in beliefs and that Blacks and Latinos in separate-minority schools benefit the most.
- Eight grade Black and Latino students are more likely than are similar White students to have high occupational expectations, educational aspirations, and concrete attitudes.
- Blacks and Latinos are more likely to have high beliefs in mixed schools and especially in separate minority schools than in separate-white schools.
- Blacks and Latinos in segregated-minority schools, especially those with many minority teachers, tend to have great optimism about their future education and desired occupations and tend to profess positive attitudes about their teachers and classes.
- Blacks’ and Latinos’ relatively higher beliefs make up for their lower slopes, and the net result is the racial and ethnic differences in beliefs reduce the Black-White and Latino-White achievement gaps. This reduction is the smallest among Blacks and Latinos who attend separate-White schools and the largest among Blacks and Latinos who attend separate-minority schools.
- Net of a large number of contextual and familial differences, Blacks and Latinos in mixed and especially in separate-minority schools are more likely than are Blacks and Latinos in separate-White schools to have high beliefs.
- Segregated White schools need to enact measures to reduce their armful effects on Blacks’ and Latinos’ beliefs.
- The racial and ethnic differences in achievement among students mirror the racial and ethnic differences among schools. Black and Latino students achieve less than do Whites just as achievement at predominately Black and Latino schools is less than that at predominately White schools. But Black and Latinos have an advantage over Whites: more optimism and more pro-school attitudes.