Academic Achievement : Student Attitudes, Social Influences & Gender Differences

In western countries there is a long tradition studying the academic performance of students. Today there is enough empirical evidence showing the link between social origin and educational performance. The first chapter of this book shows how the social class, socio-economic status of family and parents'' expectations about the academic development of their children influence in the educational performance. Chapter two focuses on the empirical literature regarding the relationship of the 65% instructional expenditure ratio, education production function, student achievement, and school district wealth. Chapter three dives into the aspects of executive functioning and its relation to academic achievement, as well as analyses the connection between the academic achievement and the perception the children have of their own executive functioning. Chapter four analyses in detail, in accordance with previous theoretical and empirical data, self-protective mechanisms, self-handicapping and defensive pessimism. Chapter five examines the interrelations between academic striving, effective functioning, personal resolve, and school experience of secondary school students. Chapter six examines the influence of shared and non-shared environmental influences on math-based reaction time/chronometric tasks, as well as their influence on the relationship between chronometric and standardised paper-and-pencil tasks. Chapter seven examines the historical framework underlying postsecondary education in the United States and in Texas, current issues of student attrition, retention, and college success, and ethnicity as it relates to student performance, attrition, and persistence. Chapter eight discusses the role of executive functions on academic performance in Mexican at-risk adolescents. Chapter nine analyses Hispanic student achievement in reading and mathematics as a function of grade span configuration. The final chapter is an overview of the transformation in education through ubiquitous access to the digital universe.