Previous research indicates that collective efficacy, faculty trust in students and parents, and academic emphasis together formed a single latent school construct, called academic optimism. In the U.S., academic optimism has been proven to be a powerful construct that could effectively predict student achievement even after controlling for socioeconomic factors (Hoy et al. 2006a; 2006b; Smith & Hoy, 2007). However, this new construct has never been tested in cultural settings other than the U.S. Therefore, the main purpose of this study was to examine the nature of academic optimism and its ability to predict academic achievement in Taiwan elementary schools. Furthermore, this study also incorporated another important school characteristic, collective responsibility (Lee & Smith, 1996; Lee & Loeb, 2000; LoGerfo & Goddard, 2008), into the theoretical model to examine its relationship with both academic optimism and student achievement in Taiwan. One hundred three out of 104 public elementary schools in Hualien County, Taiwan were included in the survey. The results of structural equation modeling analysis indicated that academic optimism works in Taiwan in much the same way as it does in the United States. Academic optimism also had the same three dimensions and could significantly affect student achievement after controlling for SES. Further, The results also demonstrated that collective responsibility is a significant factor that has a positive influence on academic optimism and an indirect effect on academic achievement, regardless the level of SES. This suggested that through improving collective responsibility, academic optimism could be increased, and thus raise student achievement. To conclude, the results of this study have extended the theory of academic optimism in two ways. First, the study showed that the construct of academic optimism existed and worked in an Asian culture setting. Second, it revealed that collective responsibility seems to be an important factor in cultivating the culture of academic optimism in schools. In the end, the current research also identified some future directions for moving forward in the quest to understand how schools can be designed and shaped to improve academic performance. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]