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Geoffrey Borman

April 2006

School-based initiatives that shield disadvantaged children from the risks and adversities within their homes, schools, and communities are more likely to foster successful academic outcomes than several other school-based efforts.

This finding results from a recent study of academic resilience among students from families of low socioeconomic status (SES) conducted by UW-Madison education professor Geoffrey Borman and colleague Laura Overman at Johns Hopkins University. They also found that there may be as much to learn by studying the characteristics of “effective students” as by studying the features of “effective schools.”

In a longitudinal study, Borman tracked the mathematics progress of children from low-SES families from third through sixth grade. The study looked at these risk factors and resilience-promoting features of schools: (a) peer group composition; (b) school resources; (c) effective schools; and (d) supportive schools.

The study contrasted academic outcomes for three groups—African American, Hispanic, and White students—and found that, regardless of race, students from low-income families who achieve resilient mathematics outcomes have

• Greater engagement in academic activities
• An internal locus of control
• A more positive outlook toward school, and
• More positive self-esteem.

Resilience is a developmental process occurring over time. Resilient students grow into good psychosocial and behavioral adaptation despite developmental risk, acute stressors, or chronic adversities.

The most powerful school characteristics for promoting academic resilience are represented by the supportive school community model, which, unlike other school models, includes elements that actively shield children from adversity. These characteristics include

• Caring and supportive teachers
• A safe and orderly school environment
• Positive expectations for all children
• Opportunities for students to become meaningfully and productively involved and engaged in the school, and
• Efforts to improve partnerships between the home and school.

The potential risks associated with attending schools with high concentrations of underachieving, economically disadvantaged, minority students were found to have little bearing on students’ resilience. This finding was mainly consistent across racial and ethnic groups. Additionally, conventional indicators of school resources—such as class size, teacher experience, and the availability of basic instructional supplies—were not important distinguishing features of the schools attended by academically resilient students.

The study found that low-SES African American students were less likely than their White counterparts to attend schools with the characteristics associated with the effective schools model. This inequity may be of special importance because of evidence that the resilience of low-SES minority students depends more on attending an effective school than that of low-SES White students.

With respect to overcoming achievement gaps, the study found some evidence indicating that effective schools characteristics may be more important for African American students’ academic resilience than for White and Latino students’ resilience. This finding is consistent with earlier research on effective schools. The effective schools research tradition was built on a model of “what works” for disadvantaged African American students. Thus, it seems appropriate, Borman says, that the effective schools model had somewhat greater predictive strength for the low-SES African American subsample than for the other subsamples.

In general, though, the results from the study support the applicability of uniform individual- and school-level models of academic resilience to all low-SES students, regardless of their race or ethnicity.

Borman’s findings provide a clear profile of the individual characteristics of elementary students who achieve resilient mathematics outcomes. They have greater engagement in academic activities, an internal locus of control, a more positive outlook toward school, and more positive self-esteem. The profile appears to apply to children placed at risk from all racial backgrounds. The relative strength of student engagement in differentiating between resilient and nonresilient students also provides evidence consistent with that presented by others, suggesting that students’ active participation and interest in the classroom and school are important factors for counteracting academic risk.

Borman’s analysis lends support to the communitarian model of school organization. In contrast to the emphasis that the academic press model places on individualism and instrumental motivation, the more recent communitarian model of school organization cites community, democracy, and an ethic of caring as indicators of successful schools.

Most important, the analysis of the supportive school community model reveals that resilient students tend to develop much stronger and more supportive relationships with their teachers than do nonresilient students. A safe and orderly school environment and positive teacher-student relationships were the characteristics that mattered most. However, low-SES White students attended schools with safer and more orderly environments than did their low-SES African American and Latino peers. These differences between the schools of minority and White children could in part explain the frequently noted achievement gaps between minority and majority students.

Funding for this research was provided by the College Board Task Force on Minority High Achievement and the Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed at Risk.

Material in this article appeared in different form in the article, “Academic Reslience in Mathematics Among Poor and Minority Students,” in Elementary School Journal, vol. 104, No. 3, 2004, pp. 177-195.