How much EdCred do you have? Exploring new explanations for racial/ethnic differences in academic achievement and educational aspiration

Closing the academic achievement gap represents a high, if not the highest, priority for researchers, policymakers and practitioners in the United States. If average white students are at about the 50th percentile of a national test score distribution, then average black students are at about the 23rd percentile in that distribution (Rothstein 2004). The black-white achievement gap challenges the American ideal of equal opportunity. This study presents new constructs to support further exploration of the achievement gap: educational credence, or EdCred, is a gauge for the extent to which students invest (through hard work and hope) in formal education; and mobility orientations---educational mobility orientations (EdMo) and alternative mobility orientations (AltMo)---are perceived paths to making it. This study is based on survey responses from 396 academic high-achievers of a college-preparatory public high school, representing substantial numbers of African-American, white and Asian-American students. Study findings show that, more than any other group, Asian-American female students of high SES levels (74 percent) have high EdCred, and African-American male students of low SES levels (55 percent) have low EdCred. Mobility orientations are related to differences in EdCred, race/ethnicity and SES. Race/ethnicity and SES are related to the number of EdMo models a student knows. Asian Americans with even lower SES levels report personally knowing significantly more EdMo role models than African Americans with higher SES levels. Regression coefficients indicate that EdCred, SES, and race/ethnicity are related to parental support of students AltMo pursuits. The higher the SES, the more students perceive that their parents are against their pursuing AltMo occupations. Significantly more Asian-American students believe that their parents are against their pursuing AltMo occupations than white and African-American students. Several significant EdCred effects were also detected: African-American parents of low EdCred and high EdCred students would be equally as proud were their children to pursue AltMo occupations. In contrast, white parents of low EdCred students would be significantly more proud were their children to pursue AltMo occupations than white parents of hi EdCred students. Asian American parents of both low and high EdCred students are equally against their children pursuing AltMo careers.