Abstract:
In 2006, Hoy, Tarter, and Woolfolk Hoy introduced a new construct, academic optimism, which was shown to be positively related to student achievement. Academic optimism is comprised of three school properties: academic emphasis, collective efficacy, and faculty trust in students and parents. This study examined surveys from 67 elementary schools in North Alabama to see whether two climate factors (collegial leadership and professional teacher behavior) and two trust factors (trust in the principal and trust in colleagues) were predictors of academic optimism while controlling for SES. The climate factors were measured by the Organizational Climate Index (OCI), the trust factors were measured by the Omnibus Trust Scale, and academic optimism was measured by the School Academic Optimism Scale (SAOS). As predicted, all the independent variables along with SES were significantly related to academic optimism. However, only collegial leadership, trust in colleagues, and SES produced independent contributions toward academic optimism in multiple regressions. Professional teacher behavior and trust in the principal were also shown to be antecedents of both collegial leadership and trust in colleagues. Finally, SES was significantly related to trust in colleagues, but had no impact on collegial leadership.
