scholarly journals College Ready at a Cost: Underrepresented Students Overwhelmed, Scared, Increasingly Stressed, and Coping

2019 ◽  
Vol 52 (5) ◽  
pp. 734-758
Author(s):  
Melissa A. Martinez ◽  
Katherine Lewis ◽  
Jocabed Marquez
Keyword(s):  
College Readiness ◽  
Underrepresented Students ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Public High Schools ◽  
Descriptive Case Study ◽  
College Ready ◽  
College Going ◽  
College Going Culture ◽  
And Coping

As the push and expectation to attend college continues to increase, making the process of getting into college more competitive than ever before, there is a need to interrogate whether and how efforts to create a college-going culture and increase college readiness among students, particularly those from historically marginalized backgrounds, might have an adverse impact on students. This study illuminates 59 students’ voices who participated in a multisite descriptive case study examining the strong college-going culture and college readiness efforts at three racially and economically diverse urban public high schools in different regions of Texas. Although students revealed positive aspects of their schools’ efforts, this study focuses on some of the negative, unintended consequences related to how students felt and coped with being overwhelmed, scared, and increasingly stressed as a result of the narrow focus on college readiness. Such findings must be considered by scholars, policymakers, and practitioners alike.

Fostering a College-Going Culture for Historically Underserved Students: One Principal's Role

2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 242-268 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa A. Martinez ◽  
Daphne Everman
Keyword(s):  
Leadership Strategies ◽  
Public High School ◽  
Principal's Role ◽  
Descriptive Case Study ◽  
Underserved Students ◽  
College Ready ◽  
College Going ◽  
Diverse Student ◽  
College Going Culture

Current scholarship focused on a college-going culture, and college readiness in schools often underestimates or gives little attention to the role of the school leader. This study draws on qualitative data from a larger descriptive case study to help fill this gap by examining the role and approach of one principal at a public high school in Texas that has found success in graduating a large proportion of its racially and economically diverse student population college-ready. The principal's leadership strategies and the challenges he faced are revealed through his narrative and the perspective of multiple stakeholders to more aptly understand how his role and approach contributed to the school's college-going culture.

The Graduation Rate Myth and the Equity Gap

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 94-114
Author(s):  
Mark H. Stohs ◽  
Jerald G. Schutte
Keyword(s):  
Student Success ◽  
Graduation Rates ◽  
First Generation ◽  
Underrepresented Students ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
First Year ◽  
Causal Connection ◽  
Completion Rates ◽  
Attrition Rates

We demonstrate that improving graduation rates does not cause more students to graduate or increase student success. The underlying presumptions are spurious and misleading, as no causal connection exists between graduation rates and the ultimate number of students who graduate from college. Indeed, increasing graduation rates generate unintended consequences that may increase the equity gap. We use California State University’s (CSU) practices as a case study of the national obsession with graduation rates and include a crucial focus on the differential and adverse impact of those practices. We recommend other goals as better measures of student success, such as increased completion rates and lower attrition rates during the first year of college, especially for first-generation and underrepresented students. Our aim is to encourage those in higher education to refocus their attention on the true aims of a college degree.

The Summer Before College: A Case Study of First-Generation, Urban High School Graduates

2020 ◽  
pp. 004208592091436
Author(s):  
Antar Tichavakunda ◽  
Carlos Galan
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Postsecondary Education ◽  
College Readiness ◽  
First Generation ◽  
High School Graduates ◽  
Critical Time ◽  
Public High School ◽  
College Ready ◽  
Time Period

Often without guidance in completing college-related tasks, first-generation students face unique challenges during the summer before college. This case study investigates this critical time period by studying a cohort of 33 newly graduated students from the same urban, public high school. Guided by social capital, college readiness, and nepantla frameworks, results shed light on students’ barriers and pathways to transitioning to postsecondary education. The authors call for an extension of college readiness frameworks to the summer before college and also problematize the notion of a college-ready student.

“Living in the Along”: Validating Experiences Among Urban Community College Students in a College Transition Program

2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 316-340 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorenzo DuBois Baber
Keyword(s):  
College Readiness ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Underrepresented Students ◽  
The United States ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Socioeconomic Background ◽  
Gwendolyn Brooks ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
College Transitions

Objective: Despite significant attention from federal and state policy makers, postsecondary completion rates in the United States remain stratified across race and socioeconomic background. This study examines a community-based college readiness program for underrepresented students from low-resource neighborhoods in Chicago, Illinois. Method: This qualitative study utilized validation theory to consider the experiences of program participants. During the Summer of 2014, I collected data through six focus groups with participants who successfully completed the college readiness program between 2010 and 2014. Results: Aligning with phrases from Chicago poet and activist Gwendolyn Brooks, I describe major themes that reflect the validating experiences of program participants. Overall, participants indicate that program experiences affirmed existing motivations that drive postsecondary aspirations and persistence. Participants felt most when their existing strengths were consistently recognized as an important factor for college transitions. Contributions: Findings offers further evidence for the critical role of validation in supporting the postsecondary pursuits among students from underrepresented backgrounds. Participant insights also offer critical observations about unintended consequences when successful programs grow rapidly to satisfy external constituents.

scholarly journals Participative decision making in schools in individualist and collectivist cultures: The micro-politics behind distributed leadership

2021 ◽  
pp. 174114322110013
Author(s):  
Mor Hodaya Or ◽  
Izhak Berkovich
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Distributed Leadership ◽  
Multiple Case Study ◽  
Extreme Case ◽  
Public High Schools ◽  
Case Study Method ◽  
Case Selection ◽  
Multiple Case ◽  
Shed Light

Despite the popularity of distributed leadership theory, the investigation of the micro-political aspects of such models have scarcely been explored, and insights on the cultural variety of distributed practices in schools are limited. The present study aimed to explore what micro-political aspects emerge in participative decision making in collectivist and individualist cultures. To this end, a multiple case study method was adopted, focusing on four Israeli public high schools. Schools were chosen to represent an ‘extreme’ case selection rationale: two non-religious urban schools representing individualist cases, and two communal schools in religious kibbutzim representing communal schools. The analysis shed light on three micro-political points of comparison between the prototypes of participative decision making in collectivist and individualist cultures related to control, actors, and stage crafting. The findings and implications are discussed.

scholarly journals A Capabilities-Led Approach to Assessing Technological Solutions for a Rural Community

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (5) ◽  
pp. 1398
Author(s):  
Xinfang Wang ◽  
Rosie Day ◽  
Dan Murrant ◽  
Antonio Diego Marín ◽  
David Castrejón Botello ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Rural Community ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Assessment Method ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Energy Services ◽  
Grid Systems ◽  
Technological Interventions ◽  
Solution Design ◽  
Improve Access

To improve access to affordable, reliable and sustainable energy in rural areas of the global south, off-grid systems using renewable generation and energy storage are often proposed. However, solution design is often technology-driven, with insufficient consideration of social and cultural contexts. This leads to a risk of unintended consequences and inappropriate systems that do not meet local needs. To address this problem, this paper describes the application of a capabilities-led approach to understanding a community’s multi-dimensional energy poverty and assessing their needs as they see them, in order to better design suitable technological interventions. Data were collected in Tlamacazapa, Mexico, through site visits and focus groups with men and women. These revealed the ways in which constrained energy services undermined essential capabilities, including relating to health, safety, relationships and earning a living, and highlighted the specific ways in which improved energy services, such as lighting, cooking and mechanical power could improve capabilities in the specific context of Tlamacazapa. Based on these findings, we propose some potential technological interventions to address these needs. The case study offers an illustration of an assessment method that could be deployed in a variety of contexts to inform the design of appropriate technological interventions.

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