Lower Academic Expectations Research Articles

EFL Learners’ Participation in Primary Schools of Coastal Areas in Bangladesh

Despite numerous initiatives by both governmental and non-governmental organizations, primary level students’ skills in English language are still below the expected level in Bangladesh (Hamid & Honan, 2012; Sultana, 2010). Our study examined reasons behind the limited participation of EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners in primary level classrooms in the coastal areas of Bangladesh. To conduct the research, we followed an explanatory sequential mixed methods design (Creswell, 2014; Creswell & Creswell, 2018; Ivankova & Stick, 2007). We collected data from 37 male and 23 female students in grades four and five through questionnaire surveys and three focus group discussions (FGDs). We also collected data from five teachers through interviews and three class observations. We found that teachers had less motivation to create an interactive learning environment for the students due to heavy teaching loads and administrative assignments. Many of the students had low academic expectations and motivation, lived in poor socio-economic conditions that required them to work, and were impacted by frequent natural disasters that interrupted their regular classes. The results of our research provide insights for educationists and policymakers related to primary education in disaster-prone coastal areas as well as other rural parts of the country.

Applying Frasier Four A’s to Promote Upstander Teachers for Academic Acceleration of Gifted Black Students

Acceleration is an effective approach for many high ability students, and it can be especially beneficial for Black students. Upstander teachers are those who recognize educational crises and the problem of overlooked and underdeveloped gifts and talents of Black students in regular and gifted education programs. They proactively identify Black students’ intellectual and academic strengths and plan not only enrichment services, but accelerated pathways for Black students to be appropriately challenged. Too many Black students with gifts and talents succumb to boredom, underachievement, and atrophy when bystander teachers have low academic expectations of them and fail to recommend them for academically rigorous advanced and accelerated learning experiences. The purpose of this article is to present acceleration as a means of creating equitable opportunities in gifted education for gifted Black students using Frasier’s Four A’s framework: attitude, access, assessment, and accommodation. Specifically, the following questions are addressed: What are upstander attitudes toward acceleration and related policies? How can upstander teachers know if a Black student is a good candidate for acceleration and increase their access to acceleration? How can upstander teachers provide equitable assessments of Black students for acceleration? What can upstander teachers do to support acceleration programming that accommodates the needs of gifted Black students? Six tables provide an overview of acceleration types, a guide to promote equitable acceleration, and considerations for accelerating gifted Black students.

A Person-Centered Analysis of Adolescent Multicultural Socialization Niches and Academic Functioning.

Despite the growing cultural diversity worldwide, there is scarce research on how socialization processes prepare youth to respond to increasing multicultural demands and the degree to which these socialization opportunities inform youth academic functioning. This study used a person-centered approach to identify profiles or niches based on the degree and consistency of multicultural socialization experiences across school, peer, and family settings and to examine the associations between identified niches and markers of academic functioning (i.e., emotional and behavioral academic engagement, academic aspirations and expectations) in a sample of adolescents (N = 717; Mage = 13.73 years). Participants (49.9% girls) were from the U.S. Southwest and represented multiple ethno-racial backgrounds (31.8% Hispanic/Latinx, 31.5% Multiethnic, 25.7% White, 7.3% Black or African American, 1.4% Asian American or Pacific Islander, 1.4% American Indian or Alaska Native, and 1% Arab, Middle Eastern, or North African). Six distinct multicultural socialization niches were identified. Three niches had similar patterns across school-peer-family but ranged in the degree of socialization. The cross-setting similar higher socialization niche (Niche 6) demonstrated greater socialization than the cross-setting similar moderate (Niche 5) and lower socialization (Niche 4) niches, which had moderate and lower socialization, respectively. Three niches demonstrated cross-setting dissimilarity which ranged in the type of cross-setting contrast and the degree of socialization. The cross-setting dissimilar school contrast socialization niche (Niche 3) had greater dissimilarities between socialization opportunities in the school setting compared to the peer and family settings and demonstrated the lowest levels of socialization of all niches. The other two niches, the cross-setting dissimilar peer contrast (Niche 1) and greater peer contrast socialization (Niche 2) niches had larger dissimilarities between socialization opportunities in the peer setting than the school and family settings. In the former, however, the contrast was lower, and socialization ranged between very low to low. In the latter, the contrast was higher and socialization ranged from very low to moderate. Most adolescents were in the cross-setting similar lower socialization niche or in the cross-setting dissimilar niches. Adolescents in the cross-setting similar higher multicultural socialization demonstrated greater emotional and behavioral academic engagement than adolescents in most of the other niches. Adolescents in the cross-setting dissimilar school contrast niches demonstrated lower emotional and behavioral academic engagement and lower academic expectations than adolescents in some of the other niches. The results emphasize the collective role of school, peer, and family multicultural socialization on emotional and behavioral academic engagement.

The Bridge Builder: Nadia Lopez

Often unrecognized for their accomplishments, women of color in educational leadership positions are change agents whose practices must be analyzed in order to transform education at all levels. Dr. Nadia Lopez is the founding principal of Mott Hall Bridges Academy (MHBA) Middle School in Brownsville, New York City—one of the poorest congressional districts in the United States. Due to Dr. Lopez’s leadership, MHBA has a 98% graduation rate and students gain admittance to some of the most academically competitive high schools in New York City. This article examines the leadership role and work of Dr. Lopez, and how she operationalized Lipman-Blumen’s Connective Leadership model to overcome poverty, low academic expectations, and racial stereotypes. As evidenced by the data, Dr. Lopez presents as a connective leader by monitoring and reacting to situational cues while determining the appropriate combinations of behaviors/achieving styles to address unique sets of circumstances.

Exploring Latinx College Students' Experiences With High School Counselors

Only a few researchers have used qualitative methods to explore Latinx students' experiences and testimonials with their high school counselors. These studies, conducted more than 10 years ago, found that Latinx students reported negative experiences with high school counselors, such as low academic expectations and lack of availability. In the current study, we interviewed eight Latinx college students from the southern United States to learn about their experiences with their high school counselors. The following five themes emerged from interpretative phenomenological analysis of the data: (a) high academic expectations, (b) advisement, (c) lack of availability and accessibility, (d) no social or emotional support, and (e) limited career development. Two crucial implications from this study are that school counselors need to be engaged in all activities aligned with the American School Counselor Association guidelines and should remind Latinx students regularly about school counselors’ essential roles and responsibilities in academic, career, and social/emotional development. We discuss additional implications.

“She Just Saw Me - She Didn’t Teach Me”: the perspectives of Australian Sudanese and South Sudanese youth on the student/teacher relationship in Australian schools

In recent times, young people from Australian Sudanese and South Sudanese communities have received considerable negative racialised public and political attention. This publicity has the potential to negatively shape the perspectives of other Australians, which in turn can have adverse consequences for these youth in terms of their social experiences. Against the backdrop of hegemonically ‘white’ Australian school contexts, pre-determined negative perspectives have the potential to undermine social experiences, relationships, and the overall educational inclusion of these students. This qualitative study places the voices of the participants at the centre of the research to better understand Australian Sudanese and South Sudanese youths’ perspectives on their relationships with schoolteachers. A voice-centred relational methodology (VCRM) approach was used to analyse data and to present the findings of the study. The findings suggest that student/teacher relationships as experienced by Australian Sudanese/South Sudanese youth are, for the most part, negative. It was reported that these youth experience low academic expectations from their teachers and are held to disproportionately high levels of disciplinary accountability. In many instances these findings were linked by participants to forms of racial discrimination, which have the potential to impede their educational belonging.

A Simple Monte Carlo Framework to Assess Suicide Risk in Adolescents: A Study at a High School in Colombia.

It is very common to perform statistical tests to obtain insights about populations based on samples. For instance, in the context of psychology, when a set of instruments are applied to individuals, psychologists typically look for an explanation of particular psychological constructs (variables), such as personality, intelligence, or emotional functioning. It is common to cross statistical information from the results of different psychological tests to measure certain variables or to confirm prior beliefs. Here, we estimate the Joint Probability Density Function of suicide-related vulnerability and protective factors to assess suicide risk in adolescents. A Markov Chain Monte Carlo Method is employed to move away from the typical Gaussian assumption on data. This allows us to estimate probabilities of the development of suicidal ideation based on samples (which form a Markov chain). We employ our proposed statistical method at a high school in Colombia. The results reveal that adolescents can develop suicidal ideation as a consequence of the following factors, together with their corresponding probabilities: poor school performance 52%, low academic expectations 27%, school integration problems 68%, risky eating behaviors (binge-purge) 42%, risky eating behaviors (compensatory measurements) 21%, risky eating habits (restriction) 22%, and low family functionality 16%.

Sexting Prevalence and Socio-Demographic Correlates in Spanish Secondary School Students

This research analyzes the prevalence of sexting and socio-demographic correlates in a sample of 647 adolescents administered a questionnaire at secondary schools in Valencia (Spain). The questionnaire results indicate that 61% of respondents reported being involved in at least one case of sexting, with 24, 58, and 18% reporting having sent a sext, received a sext, and forwarded a sext, respectively. More males and older adolescents reported having received and forwarded sexts than female and younger adolescents. Furthermore, time spent using Information and Communications Technology (ICT) devices, use and frequency of use of social media, grade repetition, low academic performance expectations in Math, and a single-parent family situation appear to correlate with an increase in the prevalence of sexting experiences. Our study also provides results that can support new lines of inquiry into analyzing the relationship between sexting and certain socio-demographic, family situation, and educational variables in relation to adolescents.

Adolescent Health Lifestyles and Educational Risk: Findings From the Monitoring the Future Study, 2010–2016

Research has linked educational risk to various risky health behaviors (e.g., drug use, violence, risky sexual behaviors). This study builds upon this research by examining the link between additional health lifestyle indicators-nutritional risk factors, low sleep quantity, and low exercise frequency-and academic risk factors among a recent, nationally representative sample of adolescents. Data from the 7 most recent cohorts (2010-2016) of the Monitoring the Future survey were analyzed in 2018 (n=45,757-46,206). A multistage random sampling technique was used to acquire the sample. All examined risky health lifestyle indicators were associated with significantly greater odds of school disengagement and lower academic expectations. Youth were especially likely to exhibit educational risks when they engaged in multiple risky health behaviors. Each additional risky health lifestyle indicator conferred significant increases in the odds of every examined educational risk factor, with the odds of school disengagement increasing by a factor of 7.48 when youth engaged in 4 or more risky health behaviors (relative to none). Findings suggest that activities that promote adolescent health across multiple dimensions (i.e., nutrition, physical exercise, and sleep) may also promote academic engagement and expectations for future academic achievements.

Too Much of a Good Thing? Self-Esteem and Latinx Immigrant Youth Academic Achievement

Self-esteem is often invoked in scholarly literature and popular belief alike as contributing positively to academic achievement in immigrant youth. Yet, research exploring this link is sparse and findings are mixed. This article reports on a 5-year-long ethnographic case study exploring the educational path of a college-bound Latino adolescent in one southeastern U.S. new immigrant community in which the student’s high self-esteem appeared to have a negative influence on academic achievement. The study traces how high self-esteem caused the student to disregard negative feedback regarding his academic performance and focus his attention instead on excelling in extracurricular pursuits, particularly athletics. The study also finds that educators gave mixed messages about achievement that reinforced the student’s high self-esteem but contributed to low academic expectations and outcomes. In all, it suggests the need to reexamine the assumed link between high self-esteem and academic achievement in immigrant youth and to consider individual differences.

The Progressivism Root of the Common Core Math Standards

For decades the U.S. K-12 math education has been mired in dismal performance. The Common Core math standards -- the culmination of more than two decades of standard-based reform efforts -- promise to empower the American students to catch up with the international high performers. Being deeply rooted in progressivism, however, the Common Core math standards can be best described as mediocre, and their low academic expectations on students will further exacerbate the learning plight of American students.

Urban Sanctuary Schools for Diverse Populations: Examining Curricular Expectations and School Effectiveness for Student Learning

ABSTRACTThis ethnographic case study problematizes the current high stakes accountability efforts that have led many school leaders to inadvertently maintain a school environment in which deficit perspectives and low academic expectations in the classroom persist. Drawing from an urban sanctuary school framework, this study works to center the voices of low-income students of color from an urban high school in California, who have historically faced school alienation and academic challenges, to describe their notions of academic expectations held by their teachers. The centrality of student voices and ethnographic descriptions of the school illuminate a moral dialogue that can assist school leaders in challenging ineffective school structures. These efforts must place deficit thinking and low classroom expectations into question as our nation's biggest obstacles toward schoolwide excellence.

Super-Girl: strength and sadness in Black girlhood

ABSTRACTThis paper complicates notions of Black girlhood by examining the dual experiences of gendered racism that result in both strength and sadness in Black girls’ educational experiences. I highlight the need for a curriculum of liberation to combat historical and current social conditions negatively impacting school-aged Black girls, such as harsh disciplinary practices, low academic expectations, and sexual objectification. The Super-Girl phenomenon serves as a metaphor illustrating the balance and imbalance of multiple social constructs. Utilising constructivist grounded theory [Charmaz, K. 2006. Constructing Grounded Theory. London: Sage], the key concepts in the research derived directly from the voices of 18 school-aged girls (8–13) as well as my observations, interpretations, and related experiences. Data collection utilising observation notes, interviews, written responses, and activity products provided from monthly sessions over the course of two years, offer critical insight into some of the complexities of Black girlhood. The most striking common themes abstracted from their voices were concepts related to ‘strength’ and ‘sadness’ in their lives. Thematic narratives were found to be most relevant to (1) negative teacher–student relationships, as well as, (2) policed bodies and sexual objectification. This work offers specific recommendations for future girl empowerment programming, curriculum, and evidence-based intervention development that can aide in liberating Black girls.

Where Is the Real Reform? African American Students and Their School’s Expectations for Academic Performance

Although education reforms have been designed to improve academic achievement for all students, there may be intervening factors, such as teacher expectations, that interfere with the success of these initiatives. This ethnographic case study examined student and teacher perspectives on an urban high school reform, and how that reform was experienced within the classroom by African American students. Findings suggest that these African American students felt a strong sense of positive identity with their small school, despite racist public perceptions of it. Within the classroom, students continued to face persistent low academic expectations despite the school’s pursuits of equity.

Family and school influences on adolescents' adjustment: The moderating role of youth hopefulness and aspirations for the future

Using a school-based sample of 675 adolescents, this short-term longitudinal investigation examined the relationships among individual, family, and school influences on adolescent adjustment problems. Adolescents' perceptions of school climate and their sense of connectedness to school were negatively associated with conduct problems. A significant interaction between parental academic support and adolescents' academic aspirations was detected for the total sample, boys, and White youth, indicating that parental support serves a protective function against conduct problems for students with low academic expectations. Adolescents' hopefulness, parental academic aspirations, and school connectedness were negatively associated with depression. Adolescents' hopefulness and their academic aspirations moderated associations between both family and school influences on adolescent adjustment with youth gender and race qualifying these interaction effects.

An Examination of the Dumb Jock Stereotype in Collegiate Student-Athletes: A Comparison of Student versus Student-Athlete Perceptions

A common stereotype is that athletes are not as capable academically; they are “dumb jocks.” In this study, two surveys were used to examine other students’ perceptions of collegiate student-athletes’ academic abilities, their perception of how they are treated by their professors and other students, as well as how they view the academic abilities of their athletic peers. The student body survey was designed to determine if students perceive student-athletes as being less academically inclined because they are athletes. Survey participants included 493 college students. Results indicated that students report having lower academic expectations of student-athletes and perceived their professors to have lower academic expectations for athletes. The student-athlete survey addressed their perceptions of prejudice of their instructors and non-athlete peers as well as their views about other student-athletes’ academic achievement. Participants included 180 student-athletes. Student-athletes perceived professors and other students as being more willing to provide academic help to them because they are athletes. While student-athletes perceived professors as having higher academic expectations of athletes, they felt other students have lower academic expectations of athletes. Student-athletes assigned the highest levels of academic achievement to themselves, lower levels to teammates, and even lower levels to university athletes as a whole.

School mathematics registers in a context of low academic expectations

We investigate the different school mathematical discourses that are made available for students who all share an unfavourable social and economical position and experiences of low achievement in primary school, and who have been streamed into three different ability groups at the very beginning of secondary school. Our investigation is built on the premise that schools distribute different forms of knowledge to different social groups and thus provide different opportunities to develop consciousness. We look at teacher–student interactions as expressions of social structure at the micro-level and as constituents of social structure on the macrolevel. Employing analytic tools from social semiotics, we carried out a register analysis of the school mathematical discourse in each stream. We found systematic differences and linked them to the work of Dowling (1998) on the construction of ability and its implications for social hierarchies. As a result, the upper of the three streams was freed from a discourse of low expectations, while such a discourse was reinforced for the lower stream. Finally, we will discuss our findings in relation to the contemporary debate about the role of mathematics education in social stratification.

Academic Procrastination, Emotional Intelligence, Academic Self-Efficacy, and GPA

Academic procrastination has been seen as an impediment to students’ academic success. Research findings suggest that it is related to lower levels of self-regulated learning and academic self-efficacy and associated with higher levels of anxiety, stress, and illness. Emotional intelligence (EI) is the ability to assess, regulate, and utilize emotions and has been found to be associated with academic self-efficacy and a variety of better outcomes, including academic performance. Students with learning disabilities (LD) are well acquainted with academic difficulty and maladaptive academic behavior. In comparison to students without LD, they exhibit high levels of learned helplessness, including diminished persistence, lower academic expectations, and negative affect. This study examined the relationships among academic procrastination, EI, and academic performance as mediated by academic self-efficacy in 287 LD and non-LD students. Results indicated that the indirect effect of EI on academic procrastination and GPA was stronger in LD students than in non-LD students. In addition, results indicated that LD students scored lower than non-LD students on both EI and academic self-efficacy and higher on academic procrastination. No difference was found in GPA.

Nursing Students’ Expectations of the College Experience

Nursing students' expectations of college have not received much attention in the empirical literature. These expectations may be important in better understanding nurses' motivations, role acquisition, and academic and professional success. The first study discussed in this article examined the reliability and construct validity of an instrument designed to assess students' (N = 95) expectations of their college experience. The results indicate good reliability and validity. The second study discussed in this article examined differences in expectations, comparing nursing and non-nursing students (N = 160) in an urban college setting. The results suggest expectations emphasizing practical and professional aspects (i.e., acquiring a profession, earning more money), followed by self-betterment and social life expectations. Nursing students differed from non-nursing students by reporting higher self-betterment and professional expectations but lower academic expectations. Implications for application and further research are discussed.

The Dumb Jock Stereotype: To What Extent Do Student-Athletes Feel the Stereotype?

A common stereotype in our society is that athletes are not as capable of performing well academically as their non-athlete counterparts; they are "dumb jocks". Do athletes feel that others have lower expectations of them academically? This is important because previous research in education has shown that expectations play a role in academic achievement (for example, Rosenthal and Jacobson's Pygmalion effect (1968) and self-fulfilling prophecy research). The current study examined student-athletes' perceptions of this stereotype. Three areas were addressed: athletes' perceptions of their instructors and peers 1) awareness that the student is a student-athlete, 2) academic expectations, and 3) willingness to offer help with coursework. Differences across gender, race, and sport were also examined. The main finding was that student-athletes perceived their peers to have significantly lower academic expectations for them because they were athletes.