The effect of social normative expectations on academic achievement in an urban middle school

The discrepancy in achievement between socioeconomically advantaged White students and disadvantaged Black and Hispanic students is well documented. Socioeconomically advantaged White students receive significantly higher grades than their socioeconomically disadvantaged minority peers. In reducing this disparity, it is important to understand cultures of academic failure and factors that influence grades. This study sought to define Social Normative Expectations, a construct describing peer expectations of future achievement. The research evaluated the influence of Social Normative Expectations on end-of-year grades in English and math. The sample, N = 367, which was 90% Latino and 93% Free and Reduced Lunch, included 7th and 8th grade students from an urban middle school in New Jersey. This study provided evidence of a single, coherent construct of Social Normative Expectations (Cronbach’s alpha = .89). However, while Social Normative Expectations accounted for a unique portion of variance in predicting end-of-year English grades (but not math grades) over and above the influence of prior academic achievement, school climate and demographic variables, the direction of the relationship was not as expected. Lower Social Normative Expectations predicted higher achievement in English classes (R2 change = .02, F = 11.19, p = .01). The discussion addresses limitations in the study and raises the possibility that perceptions of social norms are group processes that dynamically affect student success, such that a realistic negative perception of future peer success spurs some students to excel so as to not fit the expectation. Implications are addressed for how school psychologists can help educators think about how school norms might influence student expectations of peer outcomes and subsequent achievement.Psy.D.Includes bibliographical referencesby Perry Jacob Bel