Should schools be optimistic? An investigation of the association between academic optimism of schools and student achievement in primary education

Abstract

Academic emphasis, collective efficacy, and faculty trust in students and parents (3 school characteristics positively associated with student achievement) are assumed to form a higher order latent construct, “academic optimism” (Hoy, Tarter, & Woolfolk Hoy, 2006a, 2006b). The aim of the present study is to corroborate the latent factor structure of academic optimism and to investigate its association with student achievement in Flanders while taking the hierarchical structure of the data into account. Data from 1,375 staff members and 3,538 fifth-grade students within 117 schools were analysed using multilevel confirmatory factor analysis and multilevel structural equation modelling. The results indicated that all three school characteristics make up one latent school construct, “academic optimism”. Academic optimism was found to be positively associated with student achievement in mathematics and reading comprehension. School mean socioeconomic status and school mean prior achievement are mainly indirectly associated with student achievement through academic optimism.