Amy G. Langenkamp

Academic Vulnerability and Resilience during the Transition to High School: The Role of Social Relationships and District Context

The transition to high school is a critical stage in students’ academic trajectories and can be especially difficult for middle school students who struggle academically. Starting high school on a low academic track and with low academic performance often leads to dropping out of high school. This study investigates what might protect academically vulnerable students during the transition to high school by exploring the potential effects social relationships and changing context have on academic outcomes in high school. As students move from middle school to high school, their social relationships are transformed. The degree to which social relationships change is in part a function of the way school districts are organized. The results suggest that middle school social relationships are protective against low academic outcomes in the first year of high school, but not for low-achieving middle school students. In addition, a district context characterized by greater reconfiguration of peer social relationships is not associated with math course placement but protects against course failure, especially among low-achieving middle school students. These results suggest implications for the way districts organize students and how contexts of school transitions have the potential to provide resilience.

High School Transfer Students and the Transition to College: Timing and the Structure of the School Year.

The timing of a high school transfer may shape students’ transitions to college through its (mis)alignment with the structure of the school year. A transfer that occurs during the summer interrupts the four-year high school career, whereas a transfer that occurs midyear disrupts both the four-year high school career and the structure of the school year. Using the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS), the investigators find that the penalty suffered after the transfer depends on the degree to which students’ high school pathways synchronize with the curricular and extracurricular structure of the school year. Midyear transfer students appear to suffer the greatest postsecondary matriculation penalty. Students who transfer midyear are less likely to attend a four-year college compared with nontransfer and summer transfer students, whereas summer transfer students are less likely to attend a highly selective four-year college compared with their nontransfer counterparts. Curricular and extracurricular disruptions that transfer students experience after their school move explain some, but not all, of the negative associations observed between transferring and the transition to college. Directions for future research and the theoretical and policy implications of the results are discussed.

Effects of School Mobility on Adolescent Social Ties and Academic Adjustment

Why are transfer students at an increased risk for disengagement and dropout? Previous research suggests that the loss of school-based social relationships play a role. Data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) are used to analyze what predicts student transfer and what effect this has on students’ social relationships. Results are based on propensity score matching techniques and are compared with those from a more traditional approach that utilizes regression methods. Findings indicate transfer students report fewer school friends and fail more courses. In addition, transfer students report increased closeness to their teachers after changing schools. Conclusions point to the importance of gatekeepers within institutions, such as teachers, to help individuals rebuild social solidarity after mobility between institutions.

Family Legacy or Family Pioneer? Social Class Differences in the Way Adolescents Construct College-Going.

In an era of heightened educational expectations, it can be difficult to discern why would-be first-generation college-going adolescents are less likely to enroll in college than non-first generation adolescents. This article draws from cultural sociology to interpret differences in the way that adolescents socially construct the transition into college. Our data come from focus groups with 37 boys and 43 girls conducted in a racially diverse school district in central Texas in the United States. We find that adolescents are generally highly ambitious in their educational expectations. However, adolescents who would be the first in their family to attend college have distinctive cultural frames related to the postsecondary transition compared to adolescents whose parents went to college. Would-be first generation adolescents perceive going to college as being a family pioneer rather than continuing the family legacy, which represents a point of departure from their family of origin. Identifying distinct cultural frames and the ways that school context shapes students’ cultural frames enhances our understanding of social class differences in the college-going behavior of American adolescents.

How School Socioeconomic Status Affects Achievement Growth across School Transitions in Early Educational Careers

Our study investigates how changing socioeconomic status (SES) composition, measured as percentage free and reduced priced lunch (FRL), affects students’ math achievement growth after the transition to middle school. Using the life course framework of cumulative advantage, we investigate how timing, individual FRL status, and legacy effects of a student’s elementary school SES composition each affect a student’s math achievement growth. We advance research on school transitions by considering how changing contexts affect achievement growth across school transitions. Furthermore, we improve on school context research by measuring the ways that SES compositions across school transitions may be interconnected. Using state administrative panel data for third through eighth graders from 2009 to 2015, we use fixed effects to estimate math achievement growth by the end of eighth grade. Findings suggest that a student’s elementary SES composition has a legacy effect on middle school achievement growth net of his or her own achievement growth and middle school SES composition. In addition, SES composition effects differ depending on the timing of exposure and a student’s individual FRL status. Our study has important implications for both educational transition research and school effects research, which are discussed.

Latino/a immigrant parents’ educational aspirations for their children

Abstract This study explores Latino/a parents’ educational aspirations and parents’ perspectives on supporting educational attainment as a way to better understand the connection between high educational aspirations among Latino/a parents and hindrances to Latino/a youth educational attainment. Data from focus group interviews with immigrant Latino/a parents suggest that parents’ high educational aspirations are shaped by their lived experiences of their own educational and occupational struggles, their immigrant status, and perceptions of opportunity in the United States. In turn, parents’ perspectives on supporting educational attainment are focused on education in the home and guiding their children to overcome inevitable obstacles. This study contributes to current research by expanding sociological theory related to the status attainment process for Latino/as as well as incorporating parents’ perspectives into the broader body of knowledge about how parents support their children’s attainment.

Leaks in Latina/o Students’ College-Going Pipeline: Consequences of Educational Expectation Attrition:

This study predicts Latina/o student attrition at two phases in the college-going pipeline. Findings suggest that academic achievement mediates Latina/o students’ attrition from expectations to college application. Preparatory commitment behaviors mediate attrition from application to attendance. Results also indicate that Latina/o students experience greater risk of attrition compared with other ethnoracial groups at both application and attendance stages of college-going pipeline. Implications for intervention points and adjusted models about college-going for Latina/o students are discussed.