Turning around reading achievement: Predictors of high school students' academic resilience

In a national, longitudinal database, factors were examined that enabled pu blic school students on a path toward failure to significantly improve read ing achievement by high school graduation. Youths who faced the proximal ri sk of low achievement during the transition to high school were vulnerable to continued low achievement or failure; yet, a small number improved readi ng proficiency from failing the basic level to passing the intermediate or advanced levels. Being Caucasian, being female, having an internal locus of control, and taking an academic curriculum in high school independently pr edicted academic resilience. The role of student socioeconomic status in pr edicting resilience was explained by psychological and school environment v ariables. The path between locus of control and resilience was partly media ted by high school curriculum; the path between 8th-grade educational aspir ations and resilience was fully mediated by curriculum.