UC San Diego

The achievement gap, the disparity in the academic performance of students, especially in groups of minority students and students of low socioeconomic status in relation to the academic performance of their peers (Abramson, 2006), has been a disturbing reality of our education system since public education's inception in the 1800s. Neither the legal sanctions of Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 nor the more recent 2002 No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act have had the intended impact on closing the achievement gap. A primary barrier to the change necessary for improving education is the low expectations teachers often have toward certain groups of students (Allen, 1999). The purpose of this study was to explore teachers' perceptions and expectations of their Hispanic students. In this qualitative study, transcripts of dialogue from conversations held in professional learning communities were analyzed to discern underlying teachers' beliefs about the majority Hispanic students attending the Arts Magnet K-8 public school. The study found that teachers do have particular perceptions and expectations for their Hispanic students. The researcher also discovered that conversations around race are difficult. The implication is that in order to bring about systemic change in the educational system, educators must acknowledge and be willing to address that their perceptions and expectations can impact a student's academic achievement