What to Do After High School? The Influence of Schooling on Students' Changing Expectations

• In Event: 14.044 - Roundtable Session 1
  In Roundtable Session: 14.044-12 - School Reform Expectations and Impacts

Abstract

This study examined students’ changing expectations for what they will do after high school in the context of the early college high school, a college-oriented high school reform model. Based on reported patterns of changes in expectations for post-secondary education (PSE) over high school years, the study found four clusters of students, those with: (1) stable high PSE expectations, such as a 4-year degree or higher; (2) dramatically increasing PSE expectations; (3) slightly decreasing PSE expectations; and (4) stable low PSE expectations. These patterns of change were associated with students’ gender (but not minority status), grades, persistence, overall attitudes towards their high school experience, perception of school support for college readiness, and immediate and long-term college and career plans.

Authors

• Nina Arshavsky, University of North Carolina - Greensboro

• Bryan C. Hutchins, University of North Carolina - Greensboro

• Julie A. Edmunds, University of North Carolina - Greensboro