Out of the mouths of babes : hope & hopelessness in middle school students of color

This study was conducted to develop a deeper understanding of how the hope levels of Black and Latino seventh and eighth grade students are impacted by social inequality and how that relationship affects academic achievement. The concept of hope is commonly dismissed or misunderstood by educators and researchers and as a result there is a limited amount of research in the field of education that examines hope as a factor that affects academic achievement. The purpose of this mixed methods study was to examine how social and/or environmental factors affect hope levels and how this relationship affects academic achievement. This research utilized the Children???s Hope Scale (Snyder, 1997) to measure participant hope levels, cumulative grade point average to measure academic achievement, and semi-structured interviews. Qualitative results revealed a strong correlation between grade point average and hope score. Qualitative results revealed that regardless of hope level each of the participants were able to identify barriers to their hope and protective factors. The findings of this study have great implications for improving the way that educators work with young people in order to create learning environments where hope in young people is not only\ud supported but also protected