Why Even High-Achieving English Learners Do Not Always Go to Four-Year Colleges

• In Event: 73.026 - English Learner Access to Core Content: Critically Examining Linguistic Stratification in Schools

Abstract

Objectives: One major consequence of ELs’ low tracking is their limited access to higher education. Recent studies of nationally representative data (Kanno & Cromley, 2013) found ELs lagging behind non-ELLs in their college access; the gap was particularly large in four-year college access rates. However, we know little about why ELs’ access to four-year colleges is so limited. This study explores ELs’ high-school-to-college transition, identifying structural barriers that prevent even high-achieving ELs from attending four-year colleges.

Theoretical Framework: This study draws on individual habitus (Bourdieu & Wacquant, 1992) and institutional habitus (McDonough, 1997; Reay, 1998) as the guiding framework. The way Bourdieu originally conceptualized habitus concerned how habitus, as class-based dispositions, guides individuals’ decisions and actions. However, more recently, McDonough (1997) and Reay (1998) have argued that schools’ institutional habitus also influences students’ college choice. Each high school has an idea of what kinds of colleges are appropriate and realistic for its students. Most students in turn draw on their own individual habitus and make their college choices within the parameters set by their high school.

Methods: This study is part of a larger ethnographic project that documented eight ELs’ college-transition in the last two years of high school at a large public high school in Pennsylvania called Brighton High School. The data included interviews with the ELs, teachers, and administrators; classroom observations; and ELs’ test scores and high school transcripts. In this presentation, I focus on the four highest-achieving students and explore why even students with GPAs of 85-90% do not always enroll in a four-year college.

Results: I argue that three factors contributed to ELs’ limited access to four-year institutions at Brighton: (1) ELs’ low tracking, (2) ELs’ underdeveloped college knowledge, and (3) high school’s low expectations for ELs. First, at Brighton, ELs were first placed in EL sheltered classes (e.g., EL Algebra I) in ninth grade. After completing these sheltered courses, ELs were then placed in remedial-level courses in regular education (e.g., Remedial Geometry) and continued on at the remedial level through the rest of high school.
Second, ELs typically had parents who lacked college education and who could not provide college guidance. However, ELs were also reluctant to seek the help of their guidance counselors. Consequently, their college knowledge (Conley, 2005), navigational knowledge of how to plan for and apply to college, was underdeveloped.
Finally, counselors and teachers had low expectations for ELs. They presented a nearby community college as a reasonable option for ELs and did not encourage high-achieving ELs to consider applying to a four-year university. Instead, they told ELs that they can always transfer from a community college to a four-year college, giving ELs the illusion that they can always reach a four-year college later.

Significance: This study is significant because it examines the factors and conditions that specifically contribute to ELs’ limited college access. This study begins to reveal how ELs’ low tracking, lack of college knowledge, and school staff’s low expectations together inhibit their access to four-year colleges.

Author

• Yasuko Kanno, Temple University