Blazing New Trails - Connexions

CRITICAL ISSUES IN PROMOTING ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT
The Effective Practices and Beliefs of School Principals in High
Achieving Hispanic Majority Mid-Level Schools
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Johnny Briseño
Sandra Harris
Jason Mixon
Closing the achievement gap is important not just for the education system but for our
economy, our social stability, and our moral health as a nation (Evans, 2005). According to
the Pew Hispanic Center, as the Hispanic school-age population in the United States
continues to grow and is expected to reach 28 million by 2050 (Fry & Gonzales, 2008), a
166% increase is projected from the 2006 Hispanic school-age population of 11 million. With
the Hispanic population increasing at a substantial rate, state and federal accountability
reforms are asserting pressure on schools to close the achievement gap of this historically low
performing group of students (Kim, Zabel, Stiefel, & Schwartz, 2006).
Meeting the challenge to close the achievement gap is particularly evident in states,
such as Texas, where in all but rural areas Hispanic enrollments are surpassing that of White
students according to Scharrer and Lacoste-Caputo (2010). They noted that Hispanic children
are slightly less than half of the pre-K through 12 th grade enrollment of the 4.8 million
children in Texas. The student enrollment gap grows every year and is wider in the early
elementary grades where Hispanic children are now a small majority, with White children
32% of the 2010 kindergarten class enrollment. Scharrer and Lacoste-Caputo (2010)
emphasized that experts argue that Texas is not “adequately or intelligently funding education
in ways that can teach a growing population that’s generally poorer and less proficient in
English” (p. 1A).
The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the beliefs and effective
practices of Texas school principals in high achieving majority Hispanic middle schools. In
this study, middle schools are defined as schools that serve 7 th and 8 th grade students. In
addition, Hispanic and Latino are used interchangeably throughout this study. This paper is
part of a larger study that explored five research questions related to the beliefs and effective
practices of high achieving majority Hispanic middle schools. This chapter reports on three of
those questions:
1. What beliefs do principals have that influence their practice with Hispanic
students?
2. What principal actions have a direct impact on Hispanic academic achievement?
3. What strategies do principals of high achieving majority Hispanic schools
use to establish a culture of success?
Johnny Briseño, Harby Junior High School, Alvin, Texas
Sandra Harris, Lamar University
Jason Mixon, Lamar University
Note: This chapter is based on Johnny Briseño’s dissertation which won the 2011 National Association of Secondary
School Principals Ted Sizer Middle Level Dissertation Award.