Relationships Among Non-Cognitive Factors and Academic Performance: Testing the Consortium on Chicago School Research Model

Abstract

In response to interest in the role of non-cognitive factors in academic performance, several theoretical models have been developed; however, there have been few empirical attempts to validate those models particularly with majority minority populations. This study used measures of academic mindsets, social skills, academic perseverance, learning strategies, and academic performance, with high school students from a mainly Hispanic, low-income school district, to test the structural pathways of a well-known hypothesized model of non-cognitive factors and academic performance proposed by researchers at the University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research (Farrington et al., 2012). Results support the hypothesized model; however, academic perseverance was not significantly related to academic performance in the context of other non-cognitive factors. Additionally, we found that the model differed based on several group differences including age (e.g., freshman vs senior), socioeconomic status (e.g., parent education, free/reduced priced lunch), and race/ethnicity. Overall, this study confirms that non-cognitive factors have a role to play in students’ academic success and finds that group difference factors are associated with the nature and strength of those relationships.