ERIC Number: EJ1009716
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2013-Feb
Pages: 13
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0734-2829
EISSN: N/A
Measuring Urban Teachers' Beliefs about African American Students: A Psychometric Analysis
Natesan, Prathiba; Kieftenbeld, Vincent
Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, v31 n1 p3-15 Feb 2013
Understanding urban teachers' beliefs about African American students has become important because (a) many teachers are reluctant to teach students from other cultures, and (b) most teachers are European American. To construct a psychometrically sound measure of teacher beliefs, the authors investigate the measurement properties of a teacher beliefs factor. This factor was selected from an inventory of items that purported to measure urban teachers' cultural awareness and beliefs. Measurement invariance of the teacher beliefs factor across European American, African American, and Hispanic American teachers addressed its construct validity. The authors examine the psychometric properties of these items using graded response multilevel analysis. The final 5-item factor showed highest level of invariance for African American and European American teachers but did not fit Hispanic American teachers well. All the five items had good psychometric properties. Analyses of latent means showed that African American teachers had more positive beliefs about African American students than European American teachers did. However, the latent scores were bimodally distributed for African American teachers showing that one subgroup of African American teachers had similar beliefs as European American teachers while another subgroup had more positive beliefs. (Contains 6 tables and 2 figures.)
Descriptors: Teacher Attitudes, Beliefs, African American Students, Teachers, Urban Teaching, Attitude Measures, African American Teachers, Whites, Hispanic Americans, Construct Validity, Factor Structure, Structural Equation Models, Item Response Theory, Racial Differences, Hierarchical Linear Modeling, Psychometrics, Cultural Awareness, Likert Scales, Bayesian Statistics
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Publication Type: Reports - Research; Journal Articles
Education Level: Elementary Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Texas
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A