The present study sought to identify factors that may explain why Hispanic students drop out of high school. Research suggests that school belonging and motivation for educational attainment are consistent predictors of academic outcomes including high school dropout for Hispanic students (Aviles, Guerrero, Howarth, & Glenn, 1999; Fall & Roberts, 2012; Gonzalez & Padilla, 1997; Goodenow, 1993; Ibanez, Kuperminc, Jurkovic, & Perilla, 2004). Furthermore, school belonging has been found to be a stronger predictor of academic outcomes for Hispanic English Language Learners (ELLs) compared to Hispanic non-ELLs (Schwartz, Zamboanga, & Hernandez Jarvis, 2007; Guglielmi, 2012). The current studies sought to examine the factor structure of the Psychological Sense of School Membership scale (PSSM; Goodenow, 1993), a school belonging measure, and the Adolescent Motivation for Educational Attainment Questionnaire (AMEAQ; Cham et al., 2014), an education motivation measure, for use in Hispanic middle and high school populations to later identify factors that may explain why Hispanic students drop out of school. Specifically, the extent to which school belonging in late elementary school predicts school belonging and motivation for educational attainment measures in late middle school was analyzed in a sample of Hispanic students. Group differences in school belonging and motivation for educational attainment between Hispanic ELLs and Hispanic non-ELLs were also considered. Participants were drawn from a larger sample of 784 children from three school districts in Texas participating in a longitudinal study, resulting in a sample size of 293 students at Time 1 (grade 1) of data collection. Students completed the Psychological Sense of School Membership Scale at Time 5 and 9 and the Adolescent Motivation for Educational Attainment Questionnaire at Time 9 of the study. Consistent with the present study's hypothesis, school belonging in late elementary school predicted motivation for educational attainment in late middle school (p<.01). Additionally, ELL status at Time 1 predicted school belonging in late middle school (p<.01), but not in late elementary school.
