Teacher Beliefs and Student Achievement in Urban Schools Serving African American Students

Abstract Successful teachers of African American children create a relational and personal environment. Yet, no known study has developed a measure of teachers' culturally relevant beliefs nor systematically examined how they vary with student achievement. The authors created survey items that measured teachers' culturally relevant beliefs and ascertained which items correlate with higher student achievement. Teachers in 6 urban schools serving African American children endorsed beliefs regarding a communal learning environment, success of all students, teaching as giving back to the community, and the importance of students' ethnicity. In contrast to prior studies, teachers who taught students with high academic achievement viewed their role as disseminators of knowledge and believed in drill and practice. Keywords: African American studentsculturally relevant teachingstudent achievementteacher beliefsurban education