School Characteristics and Experiences of African American, Hispanic/Latino, and Native American Youth in Rural Communities: Relation to Educational Aspirations

Flipping Narratives in New Spaces:

“…The authors of this piece used the High School Longitudinal Survey of 2009 to compare student postsecondary aspirations according to locale code. Similar to other analyses of rural student aspirations, Chambers et al found that rural students aspired to postsecondary education at a similar rate to non-rural students (Doyle, Kleinfeld, & Reyes, 2009;Irvin, Byun, Meece, Reed, & Farmer, 2016). The authors did, however, find a statistically significant difference between rural students' perceptions of their math and science teachers' beliefs about their students' success; rural students were less likely than nonrural to believe that their math and science teachers thought that all of their students could be successful.…”

Relation of Opportunity to Learn Advanced Math to the Educational Attainment of Rural Youth

“…This is because when schools are economically constrained identifying schooling experiences and practices that relate to the educational outcomes rural schools and students want to attain is vital for informing the effective use of finite resources. As discussed earlier, a majority of rural youth aspire to obtain a college education and their parents also want them to (Irvin et al 2016; Meece et al, 2013), both of which are more likely attainable when rural youth have the OTL advanced math that is commensurate with their level of math achievement. Furthermore, Petrin et al (2014) found the Great Recession did not alter the long-term plans of rural students and parents.…”

“…Another implication is that accountability policies may need to consider whether youth attend a rural school and, in particular, have an equitable OTL advanced math rather than treating students uniformly because ignoring this inequity, especially in regards to accountability for standard levels of achievement, could be unfair (Hardré 2007; Monk 2007; Wang and Goldschmidt 1999). Likewise, postsecondary institutions may need to consider rural students’ inequitable OTL advanced math in admissions policies because the level of math taken is central to college admissions (Adelman et al 2003; Riegle-Crumb and Grodsky 2010; Schneider 2003) and a majority of rural youth and their parents want a postsecondary education (Irvin et al 2016; Meece et al, 2013). To be clear, we are not suggesting postsecondary institutions should completely eliminate advanced math course-taking in admissions policies.…”

“…For one, significantly more of the curriculum in smaller schools is dedicated to math than larger schools, but there is no difference for science and English (Haller and Monk 1993). Also, a majority of rural youth want to pursue postsecondary education and their parents want them to as well (Irvin et al 2016; Meece et al 2013). Additionally, rural districts use distance education at nearly twice the rate of urban and suburban districts, this is often to provide advanced math, and rural students are, according to rural administrators, adequately prepared for such courses (Hannum et al 2009; Setzer and Lewis 2005).…”

Postsecondary Education-Focused Transition Planning Experiences of English Learners With Disabilities

“…Many of these findings are similar for immigrant youth and their families. Among Black and Latino immigrant and first-generation secondary students, parents tend to hold high expectations that their child will enroll in postsecondary education and their expectations strongly influence those of their students’ (Chavira, Cooper, & Vasquez-Salgado, 2016; Irvin, Byun, Meece, Reed, & Farmer, 2016). Both parent and youth expectations are associated with the belief that education is linked to upward mobility (Arellanes, Viramontez Anguiano, & Lohman, 2017; Kiyama, 2010; Ojeda & Flores, 2008).…”