Ethnic Composition of Schools and Achievement Motivation
Cheryl B Travis1, Sharon E Anthony1
1a University of Tennessee , Knoxville , USA.
Abstract:
An investigation of the relationship between achievement motivation and ethnic composition of schools was undertaken in order to determine if the integrated experience would facilitate achievement motivation among black students. The Edwards Personal Preference Schedule was administered to male and female high school students: 20 black and 37 white students attending an ethnically mixed school, 29 students attending a segregated school with 100% black enrollment, and 49 students attending a segregated all white school. Scores on the need for achievement subscale revealed a significant interaction (p < .01) of school system by race which indicated that students in the mixed school were more similar in their scores and closer to the national norms for that subscale than students in the segregated schools. In addition there was a main effect for race (p < .0001) which indicated that black students had significantly higher scores than white students regardless of the type of school system. There was no main effect for school system. A tentative conclusion proposed that the scores of integrated black students represented more realistic aspirations than did those of segregated black students.
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