Based on national data from Prospects: The Congressionally Mandated Study of Educational Growth and Opportunity, researchers identified individual characteristics that distinguished academically successful, or resilient, third grade students from minority and low socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds from their less successful, or nonresilient, counterparts. They also formulated and tested four distinct models of the risk factors and resilience-promoting features of schools: the effective schools model, peer group comparison model, school resources model, and supportive school community model. Results suggest that minority students from low-SES backgrounds were exposed to greater risks and fewer resilience-promoting conditions than otherwise similar low-SES White students. Researchers conclude that minority students had poorer levels of internal locus of control and academic self-efficacy and were exposed to school environments that were less conducive to academic resilience. Greater engagement in academic activities, and internal locus of control, efficaciousness in math, a more positive outlook toward school, and a more positive self-esteem were characteristic of all low-SES students who achieved resilient outcomes. Some evidence suggests that effective school practices and an internal locus of control may be more important to the academic resilience of African Americans than for that of White and Latino students. The most powerful school characteristics for promoting resiliency were represented by the supportive school community model, which, unlike the other school models, included elements that actively shielded children from adversity. (Contains 38 references.) (Author/SM)