Academic Resiliency

My vision for the community I live and work in is based on the Resiliency Theory-- the belief in the ability of every person to overcome adversity if important protective factors are present in that person’s life. The Resiliency Theory is founded on the proposition that if members of one’s family, community and / or school care deeply about you, have high expectations and purposeful support for you, and value your participation you will maintain a faith in the future and can overcome almost any adversity. When a community works together to foster resiliency a large number of our youth can overcome great adversity and achieve bright futures. Focusing this writing on schools in not meant to reduce the important role of family and community, but to open up the eyes of all who read this.
My PASS reflects my passion for leadership and learning. I have selected a PASS which deals with the ability to “bounce back”, better defined as resiliency. An effective leader has values and insights into making things better. I firmly believe that becoming aware of one’s value system in regard to resiliency and health promoting behaviors may provide valuable insight into one’s actions. Indeed, the values that educators, parents, and community members hold are central to whether or not attention is directed toward promoting resiliency which is certain to produce leaders of the future.
I have discovered that resilience research is clearer regarding the individual characteristics of children that are generally associated with academic success, but little is known about how these characteristics may generalize across students of different ages, races, or ethnic groups, thus is the purpose of my PASS and all of the related research. Therefore, despite the promise of the academic resilience concept, I am realizing that more up to date research needs to be done.
For far too long, the emphasis for academic success has been place on standardized test scores, and not on the