Is Mentee Academic Self-Confidence Level a Valid Measure of an Online Tutoring Programs' Effectiveness at KIPP Sunnyside High School?

A student's academic self-confidence refers to their perception of their academic abilities. Research has found that academic self-confidence is higher in African American students than their European American peers, yet their GPAs and test scores remain lower. This trend is referred to as academic disidentification. While research on academic disidentification has been done based on gender and race, there is a lack of studies on the trend in relation to one's economic status. As part of its mission, ImpACT has strived to improve economically disadvantaged students' ACT scores and academic self-confidence to aid these students in succeeding in their post-secondary academic and professional careers. ImpACT collected student confidence levels prior to and following an ACT prep tutoring program and measured them in relation to their ACT composite and subject scores. While student confidence levels and scores increased, meaningful correlation was unable to be found due to limitations in ImpACT's data collection process. Results from this study showed that although the data was statistically insignificant, ImpACT did complete its mission by increasing participants' overall confidence levels and test scores.