Readiness for college factors affecting minority high school students in two large Washington school districts

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships among ethnicity, academic achievement, students' perceptions of their teachers' attitudes about their academic ability, and students' attitudes about achievement to identify factors that influence college readiness for minority students. Study participants included approximately 2100 students in grade 11 from two large Washington school districts' who were surveyed about their perceptions of teacher support, academic selfperception, motivation self-regulation, and concrete achievement attitudes. The information from the survey was linked to academic performance and demographic data. Analysis of variance and correlations were conducted to examine differences by ethnic groups. Multiple regressions were conducted using academic performance, ethnicity, perception and attitude variables to determine the amount of variation in college readiness accounted for by each variable. The results indicated that writing achievement and student attitudes were the strongest factors for college readiness for minority students. Additional factors affecting minority college readiness were prior academic achievement and some minimum influence of teacher expectations