"Leveraging Relationships and [School] Culture" for College Readiness and Success: An Asset-Based Approach to College-Going Culture in an Urban, Black High School

• In Event: Community-Based Research as Consequential Research

Abstract

The third paper, authored by Danica Brown is titled, “Leveraging Relationships and [School] Culture” for College Readiness and Success: An Asset-Based Approach to College-Going Culture in an Urban, Black High School. This paper utilizes the college-going culture literature to understand the role of the high school context in minoritized students’ matriculation to college. Drawing from community-centered theoretical perspectives—community cultural wealth (CCW) (Yosso, 2005) and politicized caring (PC) (McKinney de Royston et al., 2017)—this paper examines how Garden Charter, a high school with predominantly Black teachers, counselors, and leaders serving Black students from low-income backgrounds, enacted a strong, supportive college-going culture.
Extracting data from a larger study, the author employs a critical case study approach to elucidate a strengths-based perspective on the role of an effective Black school in minoritized students’ college access and success. With interviews, observations, and document analysis, the author examined Garden’s college-going culture. Garden had a 2019 college enrollment rate of 70% with more than 80% of their students persisting in college after the first semester.
The study’s findings indicate that it was not just the college-going resources and support structures that contributed to a culture where Black students attended college at high rates. Garden’s college-going culture intersected with a collaborative, family-like school culture as students and staff prioritized strong relationships among each other, their alumni network, and with the local community, viewing relationships as “the backbone and skeleton of our students being college ready and persistent.”
Findings from this study contribute to deepening the college access literature as it relates to how college-going culture is conceptualized and enacted for minoritized students. Centering assets of communities of color elucidates the role of relationships in facilitating access to and success in college. Research that positions effective Black schools as sites of care, nurture, and support on the path to college is consequential for all stakeholders including those in K-12 and higher education.

Author

• Danica Brown, Wayne State University
  Presenting Author