Stability and Change in Rural Youths’ Educational Outcomes Through the Middle and High School Years

Abstract

There is a dearth of literature that examines rural youths’ school transition and adaptation over the middle and high school years. Given rural education challenges, this study examines rural youths’ developmental trajectories of self-reported grades and affective and behavioral educational outcomes (i.e., school belonging, value of education, school misbehavior, and extracurricular activity participation). The cohort-sequential study consisted of 3,312 African American and White youth (50% female) who were surveyed over three and a half years, including the transition to high school. The results reveal significant changes in the outcomes from sixth to twelfth grade. For example, on average, school misbehavior increased over time while perceived school belonging decreased over time. Gender and race differences emerged; African American youth reported placing higher importance on education and less participation in school activities than White youth. The discussion focuses on the importance of examining rural adolescents’ educational pathways during the high school transition.

Demographic, Psychological, and School Environment Correlates of Bullying Victimization and School Hassles in Rural Youth

“…Little research has been conducted on health-related risk and protective factors for youth in rural settings [18][19][20][21][22], especially regarding the correlates of bullying. The bullying research base has been dominantly devoted to urban youth [23,24].…”

Social Integration and Students’ Perceptions of the Transition to Middle School

“…Following the introduction of strategies to promote middle school adjustment, such as middle school tours for fifth grade students, summer orientations, and models that groups 6th grade students into smaller team units within the grade level, research suggests that, overall, students seem to be having positive experiences (Midgley & Edelin, 1998). However, general trends in middle schools continue to show that students continue to experience decreases in academic achievement (Stanley et al, 2008), increases in behavioral difficulties (Witherspoon & Ennett, 2011), and increased feelings of isolation and alienation (Juvonen, 2007). Thus, although positive, the finding that most students had favorable perceptions of the transition in the current study suggests questions for future research, such as how students' transition perceptions relate to other measures of their overall middle school adjustment.…”

“…Contemporary research, focused primarily on students' transition at the sixth grade into middle schools configured as grades 6-8, continues to document adjustment difficulties for students in the transition year. For instance, concomitant with the middle school transition, sixth-graders experienced declines to academic achievement (Stanley, Comello, Edwards, & Marquart, 2008), to sense of school belonging (Hamm & Faircloth, 2005;Witherspoon & Ennett, 2011), and increased problems with peers (Karriker-Jaffe, Foshee, Ennett, & Suchindran, 2011) and school misbehaviors (Witherspoon & Ennett, 2011).…”

The Impact of Inappropriate Modeling of Cross-Classified Data Structures on Random-Slope Models

“…Ma and Wilkins (2002) studied students' science achievement growth between the 7 th and 12 th grades using HLM to control for middle school clustering but ignoring high school clustering. More recently, Witherspoon and Ennett (2011) examined rural youths' developmental trajectories of self-reported grades, affective outcomes, and behavioral educational outcomes from 6 th to 12 th grade. The authors did not consider the nesting of adolescents within schools for two reasons, the reported complication of students changing schools over the course of the study and the small number of 9 schools.…”