Study on Achievement-Related Beliefs of Students In Secondary School, Including Beliefs About the Nature of Abilities

Schools, now more than ever, are challenged to improve to the extent that every effort is made to ensure the success of all students (No Child Left behind (NCLB); Maryland State Department of Education, 2003). In the state where thisstudy was conducted, the state department of education has for a number of years=instituted school reform initiatives where individual schools are held accountable for student achievement. Under the provisions of the School Improvement Act, the state was authorized to take action that included reassignment/dismissal of the principal and/or placing the school in reconstitution and ultimately under a private or charter contractor (Hall, Wiener, & Carey, 2003). The passage of the No Child Left Behind Act gave federal leverage to the states in their school reform policies, primarily because of the threat of the loss of federal funds to support the implementation of programs for school improvement. Action by the state in this study is defined as restructuring, a process that begins by identifying schools that are not making adequate progress as measured by a series of state assessments and attendance rates. Schools under local restructuring are given additional assistance from the state and are directed to develop annual school improvement plans. They are then monitored by the state for several years to check on progress made in each school. Only when it is apparent that school improvement is inadequate does the state move toward reconstitution and state take-over. Placed at high risk as a result of these actions is the school principal. Efforts to improve education relate directly to the quality of leadership provided in the schools.

There are various models or methods to capture information concerning leadership roles and styles (Cohen et al., 1972; Mintzberg, 1980; Schein, 1984; Yukl, 1989). For example, Sebring and Bryk (2000) posit that "the behaviors and practices of the principal have influence on all aspects of the learning community, which leads to school success" (p.441). They state that the specifics of leadership are not just a listing of the correlates of effective schools; the specifics include behavior and practices related to five domains: Vision, Mission, Culture, Curriculum and Classroom Instruction. They further state that the vision of the principal, the mission of the school and the culture of the organization cannot be separated; one supports and affects the other. Curriculum and Classroom Instruction are critical to student achievement. Promoting student learning is a priority for successful principals. These researchers conclude that as principals perform as instructional leaders, they create an environment for learning, set high standards for teaching and allow teachers to take risks and try new methods of teaching (Sebring & Bryk, 2000). Following his research on principals and empowerment in schools, Hughes (2004) designed a model for restructuring schools that included guidelines that used both questions and suggestions. The question format seems to be better suited for those items the principal needs to determine or consider. The suggestion format seems to be more useful for highlighting items that were not fully developed in past practices. Both types of statements reflect the insights of principals in the research study and observations collected in school visits and conferences. The guidelines are divided into two categories: Pre-implementation and Implementation. The first category focuses on preexisting conditions and considerations that enhance or inhibit the success of the innovations for school improvement; the second category is composed of factors and considerations that appeared during the course of the innovation.

Autonomy: How much freedom does the school have to make its own decision about curriculum, organization, budget, instructional methods and materials, etc? Early staff involvement: If the innovation is the principal's idea, how quickly can the principal expects "buy-in" from the staff; if the innovation originated with the staff, how will the ideas be nurtured, expanded, implemented? _ Community involvement: When will business leaders and community members be invited to join the planning team and what level of participation can be expected?

To examine beliefs about the nature of an aptitude for secondary school, participants were asked to rate their levels of agreement with the following two statements: (a) “You have a certain amount of aptitude for secondary school, and you really can’t do much to change it”; and (b) “You can learn new things, but you can’t really change your basic aptitude for secondary school.” Participants rated their agreement on scales ranging from 1 (strongly agree) to 6 (strongly disagree). Consistent with other research examining entity and incremental beliefs (e.g., Levy & Dweck, 1999) responses were averaged, and participants whose averages were above 3.5 (indicating a tendency to disagree with the statements) were classified as having an incremental theory of aptitude for secondary school. Those whose average scores were below 3.5 were classified as having an entity theory of aptitude for secondary school. Participants whose scores were exactly 3.5 were excluded from all analyses that included the entity-incremental distinction. An analogous pair of questions was included to assess beliefs about general intelligence. These questions were identical, except that the phrase basic intelligence replaced the phrase aptitude for secondary school. Responses were scored in the same way, with each participant being classified as having an incremental theory of intelligence or an entity theory of intelligence (except for those whose average responses were 3.5, who were excluded from all analyses that included this distinction). To examine responses to difficulty, participants were asked to recall a time when they had difficulty in a college course and to describe the difficulty. They were asked to select from a set of forced-choice options to describe how they had responded to the difficulty: They dropped the class, worked less hard, worked about the same amount, or worked harder.

Two measures were used to examine students’ perceptions of possible gender differences in how secondary school students are treated. One measure asked students whether they believed that male and female students in their major were treated differently. The second measure asked students to rate their levels of agreement Gender and Beliefs with the statement “The climate women face in secondary school is no different from the climate faced by men.” Participants rated their agreement on a forced-choice scale ranging from (strongly agree) to 6 (strongly disagree). Values and interests. To assess whether men and women in secondary school differed in the extent to which they viewed their interests as being a good fit with their majors, they were asked, “To what extent do you think this major is a good match to your interests?” The scale ranged from 1 (not at all) to 5 (perfect). To assess students’ weighting of particular factors in their careers, they were instructed, “Rate the importance to your career of each of the following, from 1 (not at all important) to 5 (essential).” All categories for which multiple items were used were averaged to form a single scale. The following items assessed the importance of extrinsic factors: “making enough money to live comfortably,” “the opportunity to make a large amount of money,” and “a prestigious occupation.” The following items assessed the importance of intrinsic factors: “working on interesting projects” and “the opportunity to learn new things.” Additional items included “having a flexible schedule” and “making a contribution to society.”

Beliefs about the Nature of Abilities and the Interpretation of Difficulties One goal of the present research was to determine whether female secondary school students would show a greater tendency than their male counterparts to endorse entity (fixed) views of secondary school aptitude. This was indeed the case: Of participants who endorsed either entity or incremental beliefs (i.e., their scores were above or below 3.5, the midpoint of the scale), 72% of female secondary school students were classified as holding entity theories of aptitude for secondary school, as compared to 46% of male secondary school students, χ2(1, n = 125) = 6.28, p < .05. In contrast, no such gender differences were seen concerning more general beliefs about intelligence, with both male and female secondary school students endorsing entity views of intelligence about half of the time. Table 1 shows the percentage of participants who endorsed entity beliefs about secondary school aptitude and intelligence by gender and major. Of the women who reported dropping a class in the face of difficulty, 100% also endorsed entity beliefs about secondary school aptitude. In contrast, among women who did not report drop- Table 1. Percentage of Participants Who Endorsed Entity BeliefsConcerning Secondary school Aptitude and Intelligence, by Gender and Major Women Men. Gail D. Heyman et al. ping a class in the face of difficulty, 61% endorsed entity beliefs about secondary school aptitude, χ2(1, n = 32) = 4.90, p < .05. No such relation between beliefs about secondary school aptitude and having dropped a course in the face of difficulty was seen among the male secondary school students.1 Perceptions of Whether Gender Affects Treatment another goal of the present study was to determine the extent to which women might perceive differences in how male and female secondary school students are treated. Just over half (55%) of female secondary school majors perceived gender differences in how secondary school students are treated, as compared to only about a quarter (27%) of their male counterparts, χ2(1, n = 137) = 9.03, p < .005. Among participants in nonsecondary school majors, only 12% of women and 17% of men said that men and women in their majors were treated differently, a difference that did not reach significance. This suggests that the gender differences in the perceived treatment of secondary school students cannot be explained simply in terms of a general tendency for women to perceive differential treatment. In a second measure of perceptions of differential treatment, participants were asked to rate their levels of agreement with the statement “The climate women face in secondary school is no different from the climate faced by men” (on a scale ranging from 1 to 6, with 6 indicating strong disagreement). Among secondary school students, women (M = 4.44) were significantly more likely than men (M = 3.45) to disagree with this statement, F(1, 133) = 10.32, MSE = 2.507, p < .005. Among nonsecondary school students, women (M = 4.48) were also more likely than men (M = 3.62) to disagree with this statement, F(1, 79) = 8.131, MSE = 1.694, p < .01. Values and Interests Among secondary school majors, women were less likely than men to report that secondary school was a good match for their interests on a 5-point scale, M for women = 3.58, M for men = 3.96, F(1, 139) = 4.864, MSE = .771, p < .05. One set of measures investigated whether the values and interests of female secondary school students differed from those of women who had chosen no secondary school majors. Data from these measures are presented in Table 2. Two 2 (gender) × 2 (major [secondary school, no secondary school]) between-subjects analyses of variance were conducted to determine if there were any significant effects of gender or major on the personal values that were measured. Measures of intrinsic values (see Table 1) revealed no main effects of gender or major. However, there was a significant gender-by-major interaction, with women in secondary school showing less concern with intrinsic factors than women outside of secondary school and the opposite 1One might wonder whether female students reported being more likely to drop a class in the face of difficulty as compared to their male counterparts because of a lack of academic preparedness. To evaluate this possible explanation, participants were asked to report their Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) math scores and overall grade point averages. Analysis of these data revealed no evidence that reports of dropping a class were related to math ability or overall academic performance. However, SAT math scores did differ as a function of major and gender. Specifically, a 2 (gender [male, female]) × 2 (major [secondary school, no secondary school]) between-subjects analysis of variance confirmed that SAT math scores were higher for secondary school students than for no secondary school students, as indicated by a significant main effect of major, F(1, 144) = 14.9, MSE = 4510, p < .001. There was also a gender-by major interaction, F(1, 144), MSE = 4510, p < .05, with SAT math score showing a greater discrepancy across majors for women than for men. An analogous test of grade point average showed no effects of major or gender. Gender and Beliefs 47 pattern seen for men, F(1, 231) = 6.494, MSE = .433, p < .025. These results suggest that women who place a high value on intrinsic factors may be relatively unlikely to select secondary school as a major. Measures of extrinsic value (money and prestige) revealed a different pattern. On this measure, there was a significant effect of gender, with men giving these factors higher ratings, F(1, 231) = 17.061, MSE = 5.427, p < .001. This pattern was consistent with prior research showing that men tend to place higher value on money and prestige in their choices of careers (e.g., Tittle, 1982). There was a nearly significant interaction between major and gender, F(1, 231) = 3.390, MSE = .603, p < .07, with women in secondary school giving greater weight to extrinsic factors (i.e., money and prestige) than women outside of secondary school and men showing no difference related to major type.

The measure of the value of making a contribution to society revealed a significant effect of major, with secondary school majors placing less weight on this value than others, F(1, 231) = 1.142, MSE = 5.490, p < .01. There was also a marginally significant interaction between major and gender, F(1, 231) = 3.788, MSE = 1.142, p < .07, with women outside of secondary school giving greater weight to making a contribution to society than men outside of secondary school, but no clear difference between men and women in secondary school. The measure of the value of a flexible schedule showed no significant effects.

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