Recent High School Graduates Research Articles

The Soldier-Musician

This article explores career opportunities in the United States Army available to recent high school or college graduates trained as instrumental musicians. Two current U.S. Army musicians share their journeys to the military ranks. The recruitment process, training requirements, professional opportunities, and day-to-day life of a musician in a U.S. Army Band are examined. These two soldiers offer their perspectives on the pros and cons of music careers in the military and make several suggestions for aspiring soldier-musicians. This article also addresses effects of recent budgetary cutbacks on Army musicians and ensembles.

Hunt for the Bamboo Rat by Graham Salisbury (review)

Reviewed by: Hunt for the Bamboo Rat by Graham Salisbury Elizabeth Bush Salisbury, Graham Hunt for the Bamboo Rat. Lamb, 2014 [336p] Library ed. ISBN 978-0-375-94070-5 $19.99 Trade ed. ISBN 978-0-375-84266-5 $16.99 E-book ed. ISBN 978-0-307-97970-4 $10.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 7-10 Salisbury returns to the theme of his previous acclaimed books (Under the Blood-Red Sun, BCCB 11/94, etc.), the plight of Japanese-Americans in World War II, who [End Page 173] were American patriots mistrusted by both homeland and enemy. Zenji Watanabe’s flawless mastery of English and Japanese is well known to his ROTC officer, so the recent high school graduate is quickly recruited into military intelligence and sent to Manila, just in advance of U.S. entry into the war. Of course, Pearl Harbor ups the ante of his mission, and his superiors instruct him to allow himself to be captured among the Filipinos rather than Americans, the better to gain further intel, as well as to maximize his own chances for survival. Unfortunately, when he’s rounded up into an internment camp, Zenji is singled out by his captors as a possible American spy or Japanese traitor, either of which is likely to assure his execution. Salisbury bases his novel on the wartime experiences of decorated Army intelligence agent Richard Sakakida, with other real life figures taking on supporting roles. Although the dialogue-rich text is accessible to younger readers, the complexity of Zenji’s cat-and-mouse game and the intensity of the torture scenes suggest a more mature audience with some background knowledge of World War II. This is a worthy companion piece to the Under the Blood-Red Sun titles, now remarketed as the Prisoners of the Empire series. Copyright © 2014 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Profile of Napoleon A. Chagnon.

Nearly 20 years after leaving the Amazon for the last time, Napoleon Chagnon is retracing his first steps into the jungle. The University of Missouri anthropologist and sociobiologist is archiving and documenting three decades of fieldwork in the Amazonian rainforest for deposition in a University of Michigan data center. Preparing his notes and transcribing more than 250 hours of tape recordings, with the help of a postdoctoral scholar, have transported Chagnon back to the height of his work on alliance and conflict in a tribal society. Listening to the tapes has given Chagnon a renewed perspective on the scope of his scientific accomplishments. “I didn’t know I knew so much!” he says. Napoleon Chagnon. Image courtesy of Chris Chagnon. Chagnon with pioneers of post-Darwinian evolutionary theory in Evanston, IL, circa 1981. Left to right: William D. Hamilton, Richard D. Alexander, Napoleon A. Chagnon, Sewall Wright, and George C. Williams. Chagnon’s exhaustive empirical study of the Yanomamo tribe in the Amazon rainforest commenced 50 years ago. Chagnon, elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2012, also explored how kinship and violence unified and divided these societies. He wove principles of statistics, ecology, and evolutionary biology into cultural anthropology in an effort to define the effect of violence on generations of Yanomamo families and villages. Chagnon’s growing archive will preserve for other researchers his experiences living among a previously uncontacted Amazon tribe, an opportunity few anthropologists may ever have again. Born in 1938, Chagnon grew up in rural Michigan as the second of 12 children. An avid hunter, Chagnon honed wilderness skills in his teens that would later prove valuable in remote Amazon villages. The launch of Sputnik in 1957 inspired Chagnon, then a recent high school graduate, to study science to aid his country’s progress in the nascent Space Race. …

Individualism: The legacy of great physicists

<xhtml:span xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en">A recent high school graduate addresses the salient question: Should individualism or collectivism be encouraged in physics students?</xhtml:span>

Why Students Choose STEM Majors

This study draws upon social cognitive career theory and higher education literature to test a conceptual framework for understanding the entrance into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors by recent high school graduates attending 4-year institutions. Results suggest that choosing a STEM major is directly influenced by intent to major in STEM, high school math achievement, and initial postsecondary experiences, such as academic interaction and financial aid receipt. Exerting the largest impact on STEM entrance, intent to major in STEM is directly affected by 12th-grade math achievement, exposure to math and science courses, and math self-efficacy beliefs—all three subject to the influence of early achievement in and attitudes toward math. Multiple-group structural equation modeling analyses indicated heterogeneous effects of math achievement and exposure to math and science across racial groups, with their positive impact on STEM intent accruing most to White students and least to underrepresented minority students.

How I Beat the Odds

A recent high school graduate discusses the personal fortitude and system supports that helped him surmount learning obstacles to earn a coveted high school diploma.

Baccalaureate Expectations of Community College Students: Socio-Demographic, Motivational, and Contextual Influences

Background/Context Although much research has dealt with the factors that influence educational expectations, few studies have addressed recent high school graduates who attend community colleges as their first postsecondary institutions. As the costs associated with attending a four-year institution keep rising, community colleges increasingly serve as an affordable entry for many socioeconomically underprivileged students who aspire to earn a bachelor's degree and above. The question of sustaining these educational expectations—an essential precursor to the actualization of educational goals—becomes even more important knowledge to pursue. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study This research investigates socio-demographic, motivational, and postsecondary contextual factors underlying community college students’ baccalaureate expectations. The study highlights various influences affecting these educational expectations of community college students, thus improving the understanding of the relationship among student backgrounds, motivational beliefs, college experience, and the development of baccalaureate expectations. Population/Participants/Subjects This study is based on a nationally representative sample of spring 2004 high school seniors who were part of the second follow-up study of the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS: 2002) and who enrolled in a community college as their first postsecondary institution within two years of graduation from high school. Among the 12,500 students of the 2004 senior cohort who completed the second follow-up interview, roughly 3,000 students who attended community colleges as their first postsec-ondary institutions were selected as the study's sample. Research Design The proposed conceptual model was tested by using structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis. After fitting the SEM model for the entire sample and assessing its overall fit, a multiple group analysis was used to ascertain whether the structural model is invariant across gender groups. Findings/Results Results indicate that community college students’ baccalaureate expectations two years after high school were directly and positively influenced by their initial baccalaureate expectations during the high school senior year and their academic integration during the first year of college, but were negatively associated with the number of subjects for remedial work they received. In addition, socio-demographic backgrounds, parental expectations, and motivational beliefs of students indirectly affected subsequent baccalaureate expectations by directly influencing initial expectations. Motivational beliefs also exerted a direct effect on college academic integration, which in turn contributed to students’ subsequent baccalaureate expectations. Conclusions/Recommendations This study illuminates the importance of cultivating positive motivational beliefs, promoting academic integration, and improving remedial practices to help community college students move further toward their educational goals. This knowledge should help community college leaders seek innovative ways to better streamline student choices in alignment with their educational expectations.

“That's So Gay!” Exploring College Students' Attitudes Toward the LGBT Population

Traditional students are often introduced to unfamiliar subcultures for the first time on the college campus. Recent high school graduates find themselves transitioning from an atmosphere in which homophobia is likely to be tolerated and possibly even expected to an educational setting in which diversity is promoted. Research shows that the college years are influential in the re-socialization of core values, yet very little work focuses on the ideological shifts that may take place in attitudes toward the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) population. The research presented in this study includes a modified version of LaMar and Kite's Component Measure, which has been broken down into 6 distinctive components of tolerance. In addition to examining religion, gender, and race—factors that have been correlated in past research with differing levels of tolerance toward the LGBT community—this study adds politics, sexual orientation, academic class standing, and college of major—variables that have received little or no attention in this literature. Higher levels of LGBT tolerance are consistently observed across the indexes among women, more liberal Christian traditions, non-Christian faiths, the non-religious, and those who self-identify as LGBT. The distinctive contribution of this study is that students in the College of Arts and Sciences and students further along in their college careers are also more tolerant. Based on these findings, recommendations are made for inter-college curriculum changes that integrate students in all disciplines and students of all classifications.

Age of First Use as a Predictor of Current Alcohol and Marijuana Use Among College-Bound Emerging Adults

Background: Alcohol and marijuana are the most commonly used psychoactive substances; however, the sequencing and relationship between age of first use and continued current problematic use among college-bound emerging adults is not well understood. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study of current and historical alcohol and marijuana use among college-bound recent high school graduates (N = 1,365; age ∼18 years). Results: Drinking was prevalent (78%, N = 1,055) and marijuana use was prevalent (46%, N = 622). Stepwise logistical regression revealed the lower the age of first use, the higher the prevalence of current problematic substance use. Those who initiate alcohol ≤ 12 are twice as likely to currently use marijuana frequently. A significant relationship was found between age of first use and non-social substance use (drinking, p = 0.0001; marijuana, p = 0.0025). The temporal ordering of substance use indicates that alcohol precedes marijuana use, and age of first alcohol use is relevant to rates of initiation and current marijuana use.

Success in Community College: Do Institutions Differ?

Community colleges are complex organizations and assessing their performance, though important, is difficult. Compared to 4-year colleges and universities, community colleges serve a more diverse population and provide a wider variety of educational programs that include continuing education and technical training for adults, and diplomas, associates degrees, and transfer credits for recent high school graduates. Focusing solely on the latter programs of North Carolina’s community colleges, we measure the success of each college along two dimensions: attainment of an applied diploma or degree; or completion of the coursework required to transfer to a 4-year college or university. We address three questions. First, how much variation is there across the institutions in these measures of student success? Second, how do these measures of success differ across institutions after we adjust for the characteristics of the enrolled students? Third, how do our measures compare to the measures of success used by the North Carolina Community College System? Although we find variation along both dimensions of success, we also find that part of this variation is attributable to differences in the kinds of students who attend various colleges. Once we correct for such differences, we find that it is not possible to distinguish most of the system’s colleges from one another along either dimension. Top-performing institutions, however, can be distinguished from the most poorly performing ones. Finally, our adjusted rates of success show little correlation either to measurable aspects of the various colleges or to the metrics used by the state.

Perceived Sexual Benefits of Alcohol Use among Recent High School Graduates: Longitudinal Associations with Drinking Behavior and Consequences

In this research study of 153 college-bound students, perceived sexual benefits of alcohol use were associated with greater drinking and related consequences during the senior year of high school and freshman year of college. Perceived benefits predicted drinking outcomes during fall after adjustment for gender, sensation seeking, parental education, and the corresponding outcome in high school. Inadequately addressed concerns about sexual pleasure may lead to high-risk drinking among subsets of youth. Sexuality education programs delivered in high school should address concerns about sexual pleasure and highlight advantages of refraining from alcohol use with respect to developing healthy and satisfying relationships.

Effectiveness of Summer Bridge Programs in Enhancing College Readiness

An alarmingly high percentage of recent high school graduates are not prepared to succeed in college-level courses, and the impact of this educational shortcoming is substantial. Underprepared college students incur a monetary cost of enrolling in remedial courses, and states and taxpayers subsidize much of the overall cost of developmental education. In addition, underprepared students are less likely to graduate from college, thus impacting their earning potential and the nation's economic need for a more highly educated workforce. One approach to reducing the need for developmental education is high school bridge programs. These programs, which usually take place on a college campus, provide interventions that help targeted students aspire to, prepare for, and achieve college enrollment. This article reports on the effectiveness of bridge programs at Texas colleges in the summer of 2007; it covers two community college programs that demonstrated the highest pre- to postprogram student achievement gains of the participating institutions. Findings from this study and previous research suggest that effective bridge programs (a) have very strong relationships with their partner school districts; (b) provide professional development to all program staff; (c) conduct preprogram orientation sessions and closing ceremonies; (d) provide bus transportation; (e) involve parents in the program; (f) provide students with labs to support classroom instruction; (g) provide academic advising and other support services; and (h) implement both formative and summative evaluation methods.

Models of College Entry in the United States and the Challenges of Estimating Primary and Secondary Effects

In recent work in the sociology of education, the primary effects of stratification are defined as the effects of social class origins on preparation for future educational attainment. The secondary effects are then the net direct effects of social class on the transition to the next higher level of education, which are interpreted as average effects of class conditions on students’ choices. In this article, the standard model of primary and secondary effects is laid out in explicit form, and primary and secondary effects are then estimated for college entry among recent high school graduates in the United States. The challenges of estimating these effects for educational transitions in the United States are then explained, focusing on the weak warrant for causal inference that is used to justify the calculation of counterfactual net differences across classes. Alternative estimates of associational primary and secondary effects are then offered, after which the prospects for the identification of causal secondary effects by conditioning on additional confounders are assessed. In conclusion, an appeal is made for attention to the policy-relevant patterns of heterogeneity that research on primary and secondary effects may be able to reveal, and a case is made for elaboration and direct identification of the presupposed choice mechanism that has been assumed to generate secondary effects in past research.

Growing Thinking Christians: An Investigation of the Outcomes of Christian Education

This investigation compared the influence of public and Christian high schools on the spiritual formation and academic achievement of college students. Recent high school graduates who attend a private, liberal arts university in the southeastern United States responded to an online survey and interview questions related to the influence of one's high school experience on spiritual formation and academic achievement. Significant differences were found between high school type and the type of problems faced by students and teachers, students' ability to intelligently defend their faith, and students' perceived ability to function in a diverse world.

Effective Teachers/Inspired Students: The Critical Role of Teachers in Yeshiva High Schools

Teachers are thought to be the backbone of any high school. Data indicating how students perceive their teachers was gathered from a questionnaire completed by 355 recent Yeshiva high-school graduates. Results show that Yeshiva High School teachers are thought of as open minded and tolerant (51.9%), caring (73.2%), and interested in developing the teacher/student relationship (77.2%). The 66% of Yeshiva students who viewed teachers as positive role models stood in sharp contrast to the 2.4% of the general high-school population reported in the literature who viewed teachers as positive role models.

English

The objective of the study was&nbsp;to determine how well recent senior high school graduates understand basic consumer financial concepts and to ascertain those financial topics for which a significant proportion of students admit to not having knowledge. The sample for this research consisted of first-year degree students with a business major at the University of Cape Coast. There were 343 out of 613 business-major first-year students enrolled in the school of business that were tested on 20 multiple-choice questions dealing with basic knowledge of financial issues, which should be understood in order to function in everyday life. Of these, 190 were male and 152 were female. The highest test score was 75% and was achieved by 1 student only and the lowest was 5% and was achieved by 7 students. The average score was 35.87% for all students and the median score was 35%. Unlike most previous studies, students were offered the opportunity to respond &ldquo;don&rsquo;t know&rdquo; to each question. On 15 of the 20 questions, more students selected the incorrect answers than those selecting &ldquo;don&rsquo;t know&rdquo; answer. &nbsp; Key words:&nbsp;Knowledge, personal finance, freshmen business students, Ghana.

Collegiate heavy drinking prospectively predicts change in sensation seeking and impulsivity.

Recent models of alcohol use in youth and young adulthood have incorporated personality change and maturation as causal factors underlying variability in developmental changes in heavy drinking. Whereas these models assume that personality affects alcohol use, the current prospective study tested the converse relation. That is, we tested whether, after accounting for the effect of traits on drinking, collegiate heavy drinking in turn predicted individual differences in change in alcohol-related aspects of personality. We also examined whether affiliation with heavy-drinking peers better accounted for this relation. Following a cohort of recent high school graduates (N=1,434) through the college years, we found evidence for transactional relations between heavy drinking and changes in impulsivity and sensation seeking. Both traits predicted increases in heavy drinking, but more important, heavy drinking predicted increases in sensation seeking and impulsivity. In final models, social influences did not underlie the effect of heavy drinking on increases in sensation seeking and impulsivity. The results of this investigation suggest that collegiate heavy drinking may negatively and pervasively impact a wide range of behaviors because of its effect on personality change.

Looking at High School Mathematics Education From the Inside Out

United States schools are not providing students with the mathematical background necessary to compete on an international level and become successful adults. Recently, educators and researchers have focused on learning what factors might attribute to this lack of mathematical knowledge. However, few studies have searched for answers from the students themselves.The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of how recent high school graduates, enrolled in college developmental mathematics courses, perceived the mathematics education they received from their K-12 institution.

From Calculation Through Courtship to Contribution

Purpose: By examining data from interviews with students in the Upward Bound (UB) Program (a federally sponsored program that provides academic support to students at risk preparing for college entrance), this study seeks to strengthen understanding of the stages of trust in educational organizations that serve urban youth and in so doing provoke further thought regarding our collective understanding of trusting dispositions and behaviors in educational organizations. Research Design: This qualitative piece uses data from a study of student participation in leadership and interviews, observations, and document analysis of participants and informants to build conceptual understanding of the stages of interpersonal trust in educational organizations. Participants included 20 recent high school graduates enrolled in the summer Bridge Program of the UB Program at a university in a midsized city. Findings: Better understanding of the stages of trust came from examining the concept in an educational organization that serves urban youth. Students described their move from calculation, to courtship, and finally to contribution in terms of taking and giving behaviors as they interacted with UB staff and administrators. Conclusions: This study highlights the following as implications and areas for future research and practice: First, study participants provided information that complicates the concept of trust in educational organizations that serve urban youth. Second, study data highlight how trusting relationships develop as individuals test others' capacity to act for their benefit. Further studies that explore these relationships are encouraged. Third, study data imply that educational organizations play the initial role as giver in give-and-take relationships that characterize trust among urban youth. Further research is needed to understand whether and why this is so. Finally, issues of gender and race were not explored at length in this study. Deeper examination of the interplay of trust, gender, and race may help explain this study's findings and provide insight into trusting dispositions and behaviors among urban youth.

Public Schools, Religious Establishments, and the U.S. Supreme Court

The issue of devotional activity in the public schools has long been a staple of the U.S. Supreme Court's agenda, but knowledge of the local implementation of school prayer policy remains limited to the Court's earliest decisions. To what extent are schools presently engaged in religious activities prohibited by the Court? This study addresses this question through a survey in which recent high school graduates provided data on the level and types of devotional practices in their schools. The results suggest that there continues to be resistance to the Supreme Court, especially in the South, in rural and less educated communities, and in areas with higher concentrations of conservative Christians.