Lower Academic Expectations Research Articles

Experiences of Latina/o Students in Large Schools in Drag: A Critical Analysis of an Urban Alternative High School

This study uses mixed methods to identify the factors linked to varying levels of academic performance among Latina/o students enrolled in an alternative high school. Results from the quantitative analyses suggest students who had highly educated fathers and who reported high levels of English literacy are very likely to be classified as academic high achievers. In addition, students who received school suspensions were more likely to get lower grades than their never suspended counterparts. A majority of the students reported lack of authentic caring student-teacher relationships and a culture of low academic expectations prevailing at the school. Academic achievement was also impeded by accelerated role taking among the students, such as becoming parents and working long hours. Implications for urban small school education are discussed.

Social dimensions of adolescent substance use.

The aim of this study was to explore in detail the relationship between various social aspects of young people's lives and substance use and differences in the degree of influence exerted by the different social factors as a function of age. Design, setting, participants. The study was a survey of pupils aged 11-16 in a stratified sample of five English schools. Data from 4516 participants were obtained in relation to their cigarette, alcohol and illicit drug use and their contact with the police, perceived academic achievements and future expectations, religious beliefs, family structure, the importance of family versus peer opinions and suspension from school. Cumulative, age-specific preferences of substance misuse were compared. Logistic regression was used to rank the various risk factors. Substantial differences were found between substance users and non-users and the various risk factors being examined. For example, of those who had only been in trouble with the police, 18.8% used illegal drugs compared with 1.6% of those who had not had a police contact and who had no other risk factors. Many of these relationships were age-sensitive. For instance, the negative relationship between belief in God and illicit drug use became stronger as age increased (non-believers: y = 8.1886x - 9.16 R(2) = 0.9484; believers: y = 5.1514x - 8.08 R(2) = 0.9247). These results suggest that, within this sample of English adolescents, there was a strong relationship between substance use and the social factors examined. Although there were differences depending upon whether cigarette, alcohol or illicit drug use was being modelled, logistic regression indicated that the social factors could be ranked in the following order of importance: concurrent use of the second and third substances, having been in trouble with the police, perceived poor academic performance and low future academic expectations, a lack of religious belief, coming from a non-intact family, favouring peer over family opinion and having been suspended from school. Many of these relationships were age-sensitive with substance use peaking at age 15. The models and relationships presented in this paper show that a constellation of behaviours are related to adolescent substance use. Also demonstrated is that behaviours cannot be considered in isolation, but need to be examined from an holistic or biopsychosocial standpoint. These relationships are complex and future research should consider not only causality of adolescent substance use, but also of the aetiology of the satellite behaviours.

The Relationship between Students' Achievement and their Self-perception of Competence and Rigour of Mathematics and Science: A cross-national analysis

This study applies theory linking students' self-perceived competence with academic achievement, using data from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). Within-country data generally show a positive relationship between student achievement and self-perceived competence in mathematics and science. However, when one examines this relationship between countries, the opposite relationship occurs, i.e. countries with higher student self-evaluations usually performed poorly on the TIMSS tests and vice versa. Similarly, countries with a high proportion of students perceiving the subjects as being easy performed poorly on the TIMSS tests and vice versa. This pattern exists for both mathematics and science at grades 3, 4, 7 and 8. The authors suggest that this pattern may reflect low academic expectations and standards in low performing countries and high academic expectations and standards in high performing countries.

Inflated Grades, Enrollments & Budgets

Reports of the past 13 years that call attention to deficient academic standards in American higher education are enumerated. Particular attention is given the Wingspread Group's recent An American Imperative: Higher Expectations for Higher Education. Low academic standards, grade inflation, and budgetary incentives for increased enrollment are analyzed and a call is made for research at the state level. Reported trends in achievement and GPAs are extrapolated to Tennessee and combined with local data to support the inference that 15% of the state's present day college graduates would not have earned a diploma by mid 1960s standards. A conspicuous lack of interest by public oversight bodies is noted despite a growing public awareness of low academic expectations and lenient grading and an implicit budgetary impact of over $100 million. Various academic policies and the dynamics of bureaucratic control are discussed in relationship to the maintenance of academic standards. The disincentives for challenging course requirements and responsible grading are examined, and the growing movement to address academic quality issues through better training and supervision of faculty are critiqued. Recommendations that would encourage renewed academic integrity and make learning outcomes visible to students, parents, employers, and the taxpaying public are offered and briefly discussed.

Governance Structure, Resource Allocation, and Equity Policy

Educational inequality remains a major challenge to policymakers as our nation prepares to enter the 21st century. As social institutions, public schools are shaped by the deleterious effects of poverty, family disorganization, and racial and cultural isolation. Inequality in the life chances of children growing up in different socioeconomic environments is clearly evident in the schools they attend (Educational Testing Service, 1991; Kozol, 1991; Orfield & Reardon, 1992). Children from middle-class families are likely to attend suburban schools with an advanced curriculum supported by a stable tax base. In the inner city, minority children who come from low-income backgrounds are likely to concentrate in schools that lack basic supplies because of insufficient funds. Physical facilities are noticeably inferior in inner-city schools. Consequently, significant inequity exists in student access to knowledge and to instruction (Darling-Hammond, in press). Many minority youths are assigned to general education tracks with low academic expectations, whereas students from middle-class families are enrolled in collegepreparatory programs (Oakes, 1992). Too often, educational opportunities are socially structured.

Teachers’ Special Education Decisions Does Test Information Make a Difference?

ABSTRACTForty-five classroom teachers participated in a study designed to investigate the influence of a student’s individual psychological test performance (learning disabled [LD] vs. normal) and the achievement level of the child’s school (below average, average, above average) on their special education classification decisions. The achievement level of the school did not influence the teachers’ decisions to identify a child as handicapped. The student’s psychological test information did. For the LD case study, the teachers were more likely to have lower academic expectations and to diagnose the child as LD. In contrast to the findings of other studies, teachers were not likely to diagnose the normal case study child as handicapped. In short, these teachers did not ignore individual psychological information but rather utilized the information appropriately in their decision making.

A Comparative Examination of Classroom Interactions Between Professors and Minority and Non-Minority College Students

Observations were made of instructor-student classroom interactions at the collegiate level. The academic expectations of the instructors, as well as their reported interactions with minority college students, also were assessed. Professors interacted differentially at a significant level with minority versus non-minority students in the majority of the behavioral observations, and the instructors had significantly lower academic expectations of undergraduate minority students compared with non-minority students. This investigation has contributed to the study of teacher-student interaction and has proposed a theoretical link between the behavior teachers exhibit toward low-expectancy children and that received by minority students.

Affective Influences on Learning Disabled Adolescents

This study investigated: (a) differences between learning disabled and normally achieving adolescents regarding academic self-concept and academic expectations; (b) teacher perception of and academic expectation for learning disabled and normally achieving adolescents; (c) parent academic expectations for learning disabled and normally achieving adolescents; and (d) parental stress. Results indicated that learning disabled adolescents had substantially lower academic self-concepts and academic expectations than normally achieving adolescents. Similarly, teachers had negative perceptions of and low academic expectations for learning disabled adolescents. Finally, parents of learning disabled adolescents had lower academic expectations for their children than did parents of normally achieving adolescents for theirs. Reported stress levels, however, did not differentiate between parents of learning disabled and normally achieving adolescents. The research and the practical implications of the results are discussed.