Academic Success for Students of Color . . . At What Cost? The Importance of School Context at Birch High School

2013 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 31-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terah T. Venzant Chambers ◽  
Lolita A. Tabron
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Academic Success ◽  
Students Of Color ◽  
School Context

scholarly journals “I Wasn’t Expecting It”: High School Experiences and Navigating Belonging in the Transition to College

2019 ◽  
pp. 216769681988211
Author(s):  
Carly Offidani-Bertrand ◽  
Gabriel Velez ◽  
Claudia Benz ◽  
Micere Keels
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Emerging Adults ◽  
Students Of Color ◽  
School Context ◽  
Transition To College ◽  
College Life ◽  
High School Experiences ◽  
White Institutions ◽  
Qualitative Work ◽  
Racial Ethnic

For emerging adults transitioning to college, normative social and contextual shifts present challenges that are largely a productive aspect of development. But not all students have the same experiences, nor do all students manage similar experiences in similar ways. Black and Latinx emerging adults transitioning to Historically White Institutions must adjust not only to college life but also to feeling different and, sometimes, isolated. There is a dearth of qualitative work examining how students of color make meaning of their racial-ethnic experiences on campus. Our article draws on a mixed-methods study of Black and Latinx emerging adults’ transition to college to investigate how high school racial-ethnic contexts shape students’ interpretations of experiences of difference on college campuses. There was substantial variation in how Black and Latinx students interpreted experiences of difference on campus and coped with their feelings of otherness, and this variation was predicted by racial-ethnic high school context.

Smuggling Authentic Learning into the School Context: Transitioning from an Innovative Elementary to a Conventional High School

2009 ◽  
Vol 111 (4) ◽  
pp. 934-972 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renée Depalma ◽  
Eugene Matusov ◽  
Mark Smith
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Academic Success ◽  
School Context ◽  
Authentic Learning ◽  
First Year ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
Self Actualization ◽  
Strategies For Academic Success ◽  
Free Choice Learning ◽  
Set Up

Context What Varenne and McDermott described as “conventional schooling” is characterized by underlying values of competition and credentialism implicit in an unconscious, cultural framework for U.S. institutional schooling. Schools that define themselves in opposition to this cultural heritage consider themselves innovative schools and tend to explicitly reject conventional practice in favor of a collaborative “free-choice learning environment.” Focus of Study We analyze the institution of conventional U.S. schooling through the interpretive lens of students who were experiencing it for the first time in their first year of high school. We were interested in how students who had attended an innovative collaborative elementary school interpreted their former innovative and current conventional schools and how they used these interpretations to form coping strategies for success in the new environment. Setting The study was based at the Newark Center for Creative Learning (NCCL). Founded in 1971, the school terminates after the eighth grade. Participants We followed a cohort of 13 ninth-grade NCCL “graduates” through their first year of conventional high school. We also solicited views from their parents and former (NCCL) teachers. Research Design We employed a qualitative case study approach designed in collaboration with teachers. Data Collection and Analysis We conducted four focus-group interviews with NCCL alumni and analyzed their postings to a private asynchronous Web discussion set up exclusively for them to discuss their experiences. We also surveyed their parents, invited parents, staff, and students to a videotaped discussion of our emerging results, and invited personal e-mail feedback on our emerging interpretations. Findings The students in our study were generally academically successful in their new high schools yet clearly expressed a distinction between what they considered authentic learning and what they considered strategies for academic success in their new conventional schooling environments. Analysis of their discourse revealed distinct response patterns characterizing concurrent (sometimes complementary, sometimes contradictory) projects of self-actualization and institutional achievement. Recommendations Our analysis suggests that a certain critical ambivalence toward credentialism and competition can be part of a healthy strategy for school success and that efforts to improve minority school performance should be modified to take into account the effect of the institution of conventional schooling itself, an aspect that has, to date, been underanalyzed.

scholarly journals What Lies beneath Sustainable Education? Predicting and Tackling Gender Differences in STEM Academic Success

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 1671
Author(s):  
Maura A. E. Pilotti
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Academic Success ◽  
Gender Roles ◽  
Gender Bias ◽  
Interior Design ◽  
Female Students ◽  
Gender Inequalities ◽  
Stem Fields ◽  
High School Gpa ◽  
Traditional Gender Roles

In many societies across the globe, females are still underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM fields), although they are reported to have higher grades in high school and college than males. The present study was guided by the assumption that the sustainability of higher education critically rests on the academic success of both male and female students under conditions of equitable educational options, practices, and contents. It first assessed the persistence of familiar patterns of gender bias (e.g., do competencies at enrollment, serving as academic precursors, and academic performance favor females?) in college students of a society in transition from a gender-segregated workforce with marked gender inequalities to one whose aims at integrating into the global economy demand that women pursue once forbidden careers thought to be the exclusive domain of men. It then examined how simple indices of academic readiness, as well as preferences for fields fitting traditional gender roles, could predict attainment of key competencies and motivation to graduate (as measured by the average number of credits completed per year) in college. As expected, females had a higher high school GPA. Once in college, they were underrepresented in a major that fitted traditional gender roles (interior design) and over-represented in one that did not fit (business). Female students’ performance and motivation to graduate did not differ between the male-suited major of business and the female-suited major of interior design. Male students’ performance and motivation to graduate were higher in engineering than in business, albeit both majors were gender-role consistent. Although high school GPA and English proficiency scores predicted performance and motivation for all, preference for engineering over business also predicted males’ performance and motivation. These findings offered a more complex picture of patterns of gender bias, thereby inspiring the implementation of targeted educational interventions to improve females’ motivation for and enrollment in STEM fields, nowadays increasingly available to them, as well as to enhance males’ academic success in non-STEM fields such as business.

High School Context Effects on Aspirations

1977 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 259 ◽  
Author(s):  
Duane F. Alwin ◽  
Luther B. Otto
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Context Effects ◽  
School Context

Predicting academic success for students of color within STEM majors

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 124-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Gipson
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Students Of Color ◽  
Test Scores ◽  
College Success ◽  
Standardized Test ◽  
Cumulative Effect ◽  
Standardized Test Scores ◽  
Content Type ◽  
College Gpa ◽  
High School Gpa

Purpose The aim of this study is to determine what pre-college characteristics predict college success for students of color enrolled within science, technology, engineering and mathematics programs, as measured by cumulative grade point average (GPA) after three years of initial enrollment. Design/methodology/approach To increase the generalizability by avoiding a single-year focus, the sample includes 954 first-year students entering one predominantly White research university during Fall 2010, Fall 2011 and Fall 2012 (Allen and Bir, 2011); GPAs were collected following three years of initial enrollment. IBM statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) Statistics 22 was utilized to conduct correlation and multiple linear regression analyses. Findings Within all conditional models, after controlling for multiple variables, the number of advanced placement (AP) credits, standardized test scores and specific type of high school GPA were significantly related to cumulative college GPA after three years of enrollment. However, when multiple forms of high school GPA were included within a full model, only the number of AP credits and standardized test scores remained statistically related to cumulative college GPA. Further, high school core GPA is more strongly correlated with cumulative college GPA after three years of enrollment than overall high school GPA, high school science GPA and high school mathematics GPA. Originality/value This study adds to prior research by identifying that high school core GPA is an important predictor of college success and that the cumulative effect of enrollment within AP credits may be more beneficial than the cumulative effect of involvement within dual enrollment courses.

CONTEMPORARY PRACTICES OF INDIRECT WRITTEN FEEDBACK IN HIGH SCHOOL CONTEXT

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-73
Author(s):  
Yessi Widyasari ◽  
Yella Dezas Perdani ◽  
Gita Rahmi
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
School Context ◽  
Written Feedback ◽  
Coding System ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Writing Ability ◽  
Feedback Strategies ◽  
Problem Solvers

Indirect written feedback is crucial to be conducted since errors are unavoidable in the process of writing. However, many studies have been undertaken in university contexts. Thus, this qualitative case study was carried out to examine a teacher's indirect written feedback practices in senior high school context. The data were obtained from observations, document analysis, and semi-structured interviews through purposive sampling. The findings revealed that coded feedback was mainly used, supplemented by uncoded feedback and commentary. These imply that the coding system is effective in guiding the students to be problem solvers and independent writers. However, the teacher's inconsistency in giving codes emerged because of the use of a large number of codes. Thus, it is suggested to reduce the number of codes and provide sufficient activity to increase students' understanding of the codes. The results of the study are significant to help teachers adjust appropriate methods to teach writing. The results also give long-term benefits for the development of students' writing ability. For further research, it is important to analyze the effect of indirect written feedback strategies on the students' revisions as well as students' preferences on these strategies.

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