Recent High School Graduates Research Articles

Sex Education Among Recent High School Graduates

Abstract Introduction Sexuality education varies considerably from abstinence-only to comprehensive sex education and can influence knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors about sexuality. We examined the relations among types of sex education, sex-positive and purity culture attitudes, and sexual and reproductive health knowledge among a group of diverse high school graduates. Methods This study captured the sexuality knowledge and attitudes pursuant to the type of sex education received among a sample of 1005 high school graduates. Data were collected in the summer of 2023. We used ANOVAs, MANOVA, and linear regressions to examine relations among sex education type, sexual and reproductive health knowledge, sex-positive and purity culture beliefs, and participants’ self-reported readiness for their sexual lives. Results Participants who reported receiving abstinence-only sex education endorsed more purity culture beliefs and fewer sex-positive beliefs than those who experienced comprehensive sex education. Sexual and reproductive health knowledge was poor. Participants who experienced comprehensive sex education rated that education as better preparing them for a healthy sexual life compared to those who had abstinence-only education. Conclusions Findings reveal the relation of sex education type on attitudes toward sexuality and self-reported readiness for adults’ sexual lives. Policy Implications Policymakers, educators, and others who work with young people should champion sex-positive, comprehensive sex education. More work is needed to ensure sex education yields an informed public who can navigate their sexual lives effectively.

Association between pre-service science teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs and their confidence in physics content

This exploratory study examined the relationship between the knowledge of selected physics concepts from the South African National Senior Certificate curriculum and the self-efficacy beliefs of preservice science teachers. Forty-one preservice physical science teachers between the ages of 16 and 30 enrolled in a higher education institution to earn a Bachelor of Education degree made up the participants. Of these, 56.1% were female and 43.9% were male. Every respondent was a recent high school graduate from South Africa enrolled in a second-year university course on basic physical science. The preservice teachers completed the Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument (STEBI-B) and a teaching confidence ranking scale. A confidence ranking for teaching topics from a typical high school science curriculum was determined by analyzing the data. According to the data analysis, preservice teachers are confident and self-sufficient enough to teach science concepts.

Glitches in the Aspirational Discourse: Between Enterprise and Compromise1

In recent years, the sociology of culture has turned its gaze to future aspirations. This gaze is in line with contemporary future‐oriented culture, which encourages young people to aspire to fulfill their dreams. A leading carrier of future orientation is the aspirational discourse, which has become prominent in the educational field and among youth. Sociological inquiry is conflicted regarding the outcomes of this discourse. While it is criticized for increasing inequality, it has also been shown that aspirations are means for higher achievements. In this article, we shift from a focus on outcomes to a focus on interpretation and ask: How do social actors make sense of aspiring selves despite social limitations and inequality? Based on a qualitative study that tracks the aspirational discourse among school educators and recent high school graduates in Israel, we introduce the concept of “glitches” as articulated detours that rise in response to a mismatch between the discourse and lived experience. We identify three main glitches: deviating from the message “the sky is the limit” by lowering the aspirational sky, pausing future orientation by taking time out and limiting individual accountability by yielding to force majeure. We discuss how each glitch serves a different role in the construction of individuals' life narratives and argue that the intermittent use of glitches enables individuals to sustain the mythical aspirational discourse, even in moments of mismatch and doubt.

Classroom voices: youth perspectives to direct school-based sexual health education

ABSTRACT Sexual health education is a well-known, evidence-based intervention that can improve adolescent health outcomes, increase protective health behaviours, and decrease risky health behaviours. Providing sexual health education in schools offers opportunities to discuss critical health topics and can improve the school environment. However, not all sexual health education is taught equitably. As part of a mixed-methods study to describe school-based sexual health education, we conducted focus groups and interviews with recent high school graduates in a geographically and ethnically diverse state in the US Southwest. Thirty-one young people shared their experiences, explored the content they had been taught, and offered recommendations to improve sexual health education. Three key themes emerged: young people wanted and needed sexual health education taught in school; current sexual health education is not helpful and sometimes harmful; and the individuals who teach sexual health education are critically important. These findings can help address barriers to school-based sexual health education delivery, particularly for schools within communities with limited resources. The results support including youth as stakeholders in the planning and evaluation of school-based sexual health education, and the development of sexual health education teacher training with the goal of improving youth health outcomes.

Youth experiences of co-designing a well-being intervention: reflections, learnings and recommendations

ABSTRACT Co-design and youth participatory action research are promising methodologies for increasing youth engagement in well-being interventions. The current study included 10 recent high school graduates employed as youth advisors to co-design a youth-friendly positive psychology intervention targeting the post-school transition. The youth advisors received foundational training in positive psychology, psychological needs theory and emerging adulthood. They held regular meetings to develop a Positive Transitions programme (PTP) text messaging intervention, informed by discussion of key themes, issues and relevant practical tips. This paper aims to examine the co-design process from the perspective of the youth advisors. Each youth advisor completed a survey, and six of the advisors also participated in a focus group exploring their co-design experiences. Youth advisors noted a range of personal benefits from the co-design experience including learning, enjoyment, teamwork, achievement, and pride. Areas for improvement included clarity of the project scope and the provision of support and feedback. Insights from this process are discussed, with the aim of guiding future work seeking to design youth-friendly well-being interventions.

An Empirical Study on the Synergistic Development of Higher Education Scale and Economic Growth in China

Examining the equalization of higher education and how it affects the economic growth of each region in China is crucial from both a theoretical and practical standpoint as it pertains to public services since higher education has a significant impact on a nation’s or region’s competitiveness. In this context, this research uses data from 1997 to 2020 to examine the economic impact of higher education on each province using the education composite index. On the other hand, the generalized least squares method was used to analyze the effects of GDP per capita, high school graduation rates, and educational policies on economic development from 1988-2018. The empirical findings indicate that higher education throughout the sample period contributed 15.73% to economic growth and 0.18% to the general level of education. Additionally, there is a strong association between the number of recent high school graduates, GDP per capita, and national policy and enrollment size.

A Common First-Year Undergraduate Engineering Course in Manufacturing based on Industrial Robots and Flipped Classroom

The pedagogy of a first-year engineering course in manufacturing is presented. This course entitled Manufacturing and Society involves collaboration with social science, is based on industrial robots as the central theme to attract students’ interests and utilizes the flipped classroom approach for delivery. We hypothesize that, in one semester, recent high school graduates will be able to gain knowledge in manufacturing by learning the computer-aided engineering (CAD) software, applying CAD to design a penholder, fabricating the penholder using additive manufacturing and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) software, programming the robot to create a toolpath for the pen, drawing using the pen on the penholder guided by a robot, and elaborating on impacts of robotic painting on society from a social science perspective. This course is designed to give students, regardless of their intended major in engineering, broad knowledge in manufacturing via 10 engineering, 3 social science, and 10 technical communication lectures; 8 labs; and 4 projects. The social science lectures and discussions focus on how knowledge about society can be used to inform design and manufacturing decisions, social science research methods for understanding how engineers and technology can impact people’s lives, and changing trends in work, the workplace, and the future workforce as it relates to manufacturing. This course aimed to give undergraduate first-year engineering students a positive view of advanced manufacturing and its impact on society. Student evaluations and comments were positive and affirmed the learning objective of teaching manufacturing to the first-year engineering students. The flipped classroom approach was demonstrated to be ideal during the COVID-19 pandemic with limited capacity for in-person lectures and labs. The use of flipped classrooms allowed students to learn at their own pace, review and reinforce knowledge, have a closer interaction with instructors, and reduce the number of technical errors using simulation tools. This course with the support of flipped classroom pedagogy can be successfully implemented in the post-pandemic era, devoting the time of the class to answer questions, expand upon the class content and have a closer in-person interaction with students.

Stakeholders’ attitudes towards the installations of closed-circuit television cameras in reducing school violence

PurposeWhile schools worldwide have employed closed-circuit television (CCTV) to discourage school violence, the literature shows that stakeholder attitudes toward adopting this technology are inconsistent across cultures. Generally, they are concerned with effectiveness, necessity, privacy, and operational transparency. Based on the Technology Acceptance Model for Video Surveillance (TAM-VS) theory, this study examined the attitudes of educational stakeholders, namely educators and students, toward adopting CCTV in Vietnam. This study aims to investigate which criteria Vietnamese stakeholders use to evaluate the necessity of CCTV and whether the concerns of Vietnam, a developing country, are similar to those of developed countries. MethodsThis study addressed these research questions by purposely sampling and interviewing 49 Vietnamese high school students, recent high school graduate students, teachers, and administrators. It employed semi-structured and in-depth interviews to gather content-rich data and applied thematic analysis to discover new insights from stakeholders under the modified TAM-VS framework. The study also followed the COREQ guidelines to improve the transparency and rigor of the data collection and analysis. FindingsOn an exploratory basis, most Vietnamese stakeholders believed that while CCTV cannot comprehensively prevent school violence, its effectiveness overshadows privacy concerns. Regarding operational transparency concerns, participants suggested that better communication, consent collection, and the right to amend school policies related to CCTV are important. From the participants’ perspective, the three criteria for evaluating the necessity of CCTV were (1) its effectiveness in controlling school violence, (2) serving other purposes to enhance overall schooling performance, and (3) insufficient existing methods. ConclusionsThis study provides context-rich insights into the perceptions of the necessity, effectiveness, privacy, and operational transparency concerns of CCTV across different stakeholders in the education and developing country context. On the practical contribution, the research identifies strategies that school administrators can employ to promote CCTV acceptance in Vietnamese high schools.

The Afterlife of Mass Incarceration, or What Does It Mean to Need a “Brute” in the Twenty-First Century?

The Afterlife of Mass Incarceration, or What Does It Mean to Need a “Brute” in the Twenty-First Century?

The Nature and Scope of Educator Misconduct in K-12.

Educator sexual misconduct is a serious problem in the United States (U.S.), with a 2004 Department of Education report estimating that 9.6% of K-12 students in the U.S. had experienced either verbal, visual, or physical educator misconduct at some point during their school career. However, since that report almost 20years ago, there have been few large-scale studies examining the extent of the problem. As such, the current study, which uses a large sample from recent high school graduates in four U.S. states, offers updated data on the nature and scope of sexual misconduct in educational settings. Overall, 11.7% of the 6632 participants reported having experienced at least one form of educator sexual misconduct during Grades K-12, with 11% reporting sexual comments and less than 1% reporting other forms of sexual misconduct (e.g., receiving sexual photos/messages, being kissed, touched sexually, or engaging in sexual intercourse/oral sex). Those who reported misconduct showed significantly more difficulties in current psychosocial functioning than those who did not report educator misconduct. Academic teachers most often perpetrated the abuse (63%), followed by coaches and gym teachers (20%). Educators who engaged in sexual misconduct were primarily male (85%), whereas students who reported experiencing educator misconduct were primarily female (72%). Rates of disclosure to authorities were very low (4%) and some sexual grooming behaviors like gift giving (12%) and showing special attention (29%) were reported. These findings will be discussed as they pertain to the prevention of sexual misconduct within educational settings.

Community College Entrance and Bachelor’s Degree Attainment: A Replication and Update

Objectives: We explore the influence of initial enrollment at a community college on the attainment of a bachelor’s degree. Methods: Using the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS: 12/17) and propensity score analysis, we compare baccalaureate degree outcomes of recent high school graduates who reported their intention to earn a bachelor’s degree and initially enrolled at a community college to those students who began at a 4-year institution. Results: We found initial enrollment in a community college has a negative effect on bachelor’s degree attainment. Our findings are consistent across varying outcome and sample specifications. The magnitude of our findings is consistent with a recent meta-analysis. We found that almost two-thirds of our sample who started at a community college enrolled in a 4-year institution, a fact that has important implications for practice. Contributions: Given the recent research suggesting that more comprehensive programs can drastically increase community college students’ attainment (e.g., CUNY ASAP), we advocate for additional supports for bachelor’s degree-intending community college students. Since the majority of those who start their education at a community college enroll in a 4-year institution, we add to the growing call that discussions about ways to improve the success of bachelor’s degree-intending community college students must include 4-year institutions as partners.

Gig-jobs: Stepping stones or dead ends?

How useful is work experience from the gig economy for labor market entrants searching for traditional wage jobs? We conducted a correspondence study in Sweden, comparing callback rates for recent high school graduates with (i) gig-experience, (ii) traditional experience, and (iii) unemployment history. We also study heterogeneous responses with respect to perceived foreign background. Our findings suggest that gig-experience is more valuable than unemployment, but less useful than traditional experience for majority applicants. Strikingly however, no form of labor market experience increases the callback rate for minority workers.

Editorial: The Need for Good Leaders in Higher Education

Consistently, and without pause, have ethical, social, and moral crises plagued the higher educational domain. With rapidly changing student bases, staff profiles, and funding structures, university leaders and managers have been required to do, and be, more. In times of crisis, heightened complexity, and competition, leaders have struggled with greater frequency to be, and do, good. In parallel, students and learners have juggled more, had more diverse motivations for studying, and been less homogenous with the once-typical nineteen-year-old recent high school graduate. In recent years, there have been repeated stories of unethical practices of leadership. While catastrophising is not the aim, nor pursuit, of this editorial, these provide context for the Journal’s expansion into educational leadership, management, and educational psychology in higher education. With the rise of software to make cheating easier, opportunities to outsource dissertations, and a more turbulent sector, it will be the leaders who sustain teams, and build good educational outcomes.

Broadening Participation through Research Experiences in Marine Science: An Early-Admit Immersive College Course Provides Experiential, Place-Based Scientific Training for Hawai‘i High School Students

Developing meaningful and authentic opportunities for students from historically excluded groups that inspire and sustain their interest in STEM pathways is essential for overcoming some of the barriers to entry that continue to hinder diversity in STEM fields. The Research Experiences in Marine Science (REMS) program is an immersive, place-based, course-based research experience at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa that focuses on science-driven marine conservation and incorporates Hawaiʻi’s unique ecology and culture to better engage local high school students and recent high school graduates. During the program, students participate in field- and laboratory-based marine science modules and conduct research alongside professional scientists, science educators, and near-peer mentors, and they are encouraged to consult with Native Hawaiian scholars and practitioners who actively collaborate or partner with the program. Student self-assessments of confidence, attitudes, and interest in marine science were collected pre- and post-program via surveys that included both Likert scale and open-ended items. Results demonstrated significant positive post-program shifts in student confidence in testing hypotheses, valuing environmental stewardship, and recognizing the relevance of marine science, as well as shifts in the students’ interest in marine science subjects and careers. Students reported very high satisfaction with the content modules, group research projects, and overall REMS program experience. Our approach, emphasizing sense of place, community connections, and a strong tiered mentoring structure, provides a robust model for undergraduate science training that may help broaden student participation in conservation-related marine STEM.

Who Benefited More From the Developmental Education Reform in Florida? The Role of Exemption Status

Under Florida’s developmental education (DE) reform since 2014, recent public high school graduates and active-duty military personnel became exempt from DE and traditional placement tests. The legislation also required colleges to provide accelerated instruction strategies for students remaining in DE and offer enhanced advising and support services for all incoming students. Focusing on the differential policy impacts on exempt and nonexempt students, we used statewide administrative data to examine changes in first-year completion rates for gateway math and English courses before and after the reform. Overall, and for those deemed to be college-ready, nonexempt students benefited more from the reform; however, the opposite is true for students who were not college-ready, with exempt students benefiting more. This study confirms that each component of the reform has played a role in contributing to its success.

A Quasi-Experimental Investigation of the Effect of Tennessee Promise on Postsecondary Career and Technical Education Enrollment Responses

In this study I deployed quasi-experimental methods to explore the effect of the implementation of a statewide free-college program, Tennessee Promise, on enrollment in postsecondary career and technical education programs. State policymakers implemented the Tennessee Promise, a free-college program for recent high school graduates attending public, two-year institutions, in 2015. As postsecondary attainment in the United States falls short of workforce needs, there has been an increased focus on postsecondary career and technical education credentials and degrees linking workforce needs directly with educational programs (Lumina, 2019; Perkins V, 2019). However, it is currently unknown whether access to statewide free-college funding impacts enrollment in postsecondary career and technical education. In this study, I use federal data to estimate the causal effect of Tennessee Promise on postsecondary career and technical education enrollment. Findings from the analysis show a small but insignificant increase in Tennessee after the implementation of the grant when compared to both the national control group and the contiguous control group. I discuss the implications for research and practice, and how promise programs may be leveraged more effectively moving forward to improve outcomes in postsecondary career and technical education.

Community College Program Choices in the Wake of Local Job Losses

Deciding which field to study is one of the most consequential decisions college students make, but most research on the topic focuses on students attending 4-year colleges. To understand how students attending community colleges make field-of-study decisions, I link administrative educational records of recent high school graduates with local mass layoff and plant-closing announcements. I find that declines in local employment deter students from entering closely related community college programs and instead induce them to enroll in other vocationally oriented programs. Students predominantly shift enrollment between programs that lead to occupations requiring similar skills.

The Hidden Costs of Corroboration: Estimating the Effects of Financial Aid Verification on College Enrollment

Every year, the U.S. Department of Education selects hundreds of thousands of low-income students to provide additional documentation to corroborate their financial aid eligibility in a process known as verification. Although many are concerned about the potential deleterious effects of being selected, to date, studies are limited to descriptive analyses. To fill this gap in the literature, we use population-level, multicohort data to estimate the effects of financial aid verification on initial college enrollment for recent high school graduates in Tennessee. An entropy balance weighting approach indicates that students selected for verification are 3.8 percentage points (4.9%) less likely to enroll in college with underserved populations and late Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) filers most negatively affected.

Shining the Spotlight on Those outside Florida’s Reform Limelight: The Impact of Developmental Education Reform for Nonexempt Students

ABSTRACT Since the 2000s, states have experimented with reforms to improve success among underprepared students traditionally assigned to developmental education (DE). Florida’s reform under Senate Bill 1720 has been among the most comprehensive and wide-reaching. Recent public high school graduates and military personnel became exempt from DE, but nearly one-third of students, including those without a Florida standard high school diploma, were still required to take a placement test and enroll in DE if they scored below college-ready. The legislation also required colleges to offer accelerated instructional strategies for students remaining in DE, and provide enhanced advising and support services. Focusing specifically on nonexempt students, we use statewide data to conduct a difference-in-regression discontinuity analysis to examine differences in first-year math coursetaking outcomes for students on the margins of college readiness before and after the reform. While students narrowly assigned to DE tend to have a lower likelihood of taking and passing college-level courses relative to their college-ready peers, these students experienced larger gains after the reform when DE courses were offered in accelerated formats accompanied by support services. The reform also improved outcomes for students scoring above college-ready, which suggests that nonexempt students benefited from enhanced advising and support services too.

Recent high school graduates support mandatory cardiopulmonary resuscitation education in Australian high schools

ObjectiveTo evaluate recent high school graduates' opinions on mandatory cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training in the high school curriculum as a solution to improving bystander CPR rates. MethodsParticipants completed questionnaires assessing their CPR training history during their high school education, their willingness to learn CPR during their high school years and their opinion on making CPR training mandatory for high school curricula. ResultsOf the 178 participants in this study, 60% had undertaken CPR training during their high school education. Of those who had not undertaken CPR training, 75% reported that they would have been willing to learn CPR had they been provided with the opportunity. A total of 97% of participants were in support of mandatory CPR training in high school education. ConclusionImplementing mandatory CPR training in high school education would be embraced by students. Implications for public healthFindings of this study support our recommendation to implement mandatory CPR training in the high school curriculum. This will likely increase the number of bystanders in the community who would spontaneously administer CPR, thereby improving outcomes for patients experiencing out‐of‐hospital cardiac arrest.