The relationship between ethnicity, academic achievement, and perception of school culture of Mexican American and Puerto Rican urban high school students

The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationships that exist between ethnicity and the perception of school culture and achievement among Mexican American and Puerto Rican students. The procedure included surveying 211 high school students in two urban public schools using the Student Background Questionnaire and the Instructional Climate Inventory. The self-reported ethnic affiliation of students in the Student Background Questionnaire was used to determine their ethnicity. The socio-economic status of the subjects was determined by their participation in the free or reduced lunch program. The Instructional Climate Inventory was used as the scale to determine the perception of school climate among the subjects. The research design used for this investigation was the t-test in order to determine the level of significant difference between the means of the two ethnic groups of students with regards to their perception of school climate and their academic achievement as determined by their grade point average. The author found that there is no statistically significant difference in the perception of school culture by Mexican-American and Puerto Rican students from the same socio-economic status. This result implies that these two ethnic groups have similar perceptions of the school climate. The researcher also found that there is no statistically significant difference in the academic achievement of Mexican American and Puerto Rican students from the same socio-economic status. Therefore, no statistically significant evidence was found to support the contention that Mexican American and Puerto Rican students from the same socio-economic status had different academic achievement.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ed.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Open Access Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Curriculum and Instruction

Year dc:date.available

1998

Author dc:creator

• Barquet, Norma I.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Dr. Manuel Reyes Mazon

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/oa_dissertations/1187

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.wayne.edu:oa_dissertations-2186