Building Motivation and Achievement in Urban Students: Insights From a Supportive Academy

This qualitative study explored what motivates urban students in an accelerated honors high school to learn. Forty-four students in grades 9-12 responded to a single, open-ended question: “What motivates you to learn?” Using grounded theory, the findings indicated that family was the primary motivator. Intrinsic motivation increased from grades 9-10 to 11-12, was higher among females, and was positively correlated with GPA.