High school transition‐related changes in urban minority students' academic performance and perceptions of self and school environment

The current study documents the magnitude and direction of change in relationships between the school perceptions, self-perceptions, and academic performance of a group of urban, predominantly minority eighth-graders during the normative transition to high school. Of the sets of person and environment variables examined, a greater number of inter-relationships was observed at the high school level relative to the elementary school level. In addition, the overall pattern of change in relationships over the course of the transition suggests the importance of teacher variables in the self-perceptions and academic performance of students. Findings further suggest that elementary school attended and specific characteristics of that setting play a role in students' adjustment during the transition to high school. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.