A multilevel model of educational expectations of secondary school students in the United States

Abstract

Using the Educational Longitudinal Survey of 2002, we investigate variation in factors that contribute to Asian, Black, Hispanic, and White students' educational expectations. Separate multilevel models demonstrate group variation in student and school-level influences. Academic and school factors explained the most variation in White students' expectations. School characteristics were least predictive of Black student expectations. For Hispanic students, the overall influence of family socioeconomic status (SES) was explained by school level SES. These results support research on student-level predictors of expectations and present new evidence of school-level predictors. The impact of academic track perceptions on expectations is established, as are the effects of certain experiences and school contexts, especially sports participation and Catholic/private school attendance. A model comparing all four groups supported the separate group models and also revealed that student-level factors have a weaker influence on Asians and high crime neighborhoods inflate the expectations of Hispanics but not similarly situated Black students.

Pathways to Achievement: How Low‐Income Mexican‐Origin Parents Promote Their Adolescents Through School

“…Recent studies have found that parents affect their children's expectations through their own educational background, SES, and expectations for their children (Lowman & Elliott, 2010; St‐Hilaire, 2002), but studies have not yet investigated which specific parental behaviors positively influence children's educational expectations. Our study demonstrates that expressing high expectations of success is an important way that parents positively impact their middle school students' beliefs that they will finish high school and go to college.…”

Analyzing profiles, predictors, and consequences of student engagement dispositions

“…The ELS is a nationally representative cohort study sponsored by the National Center for Educational Statistics (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2004). It includes multiple waves of student data; starting in the base year of 2002 when students were high school sophomores and concluding in 2012 when students were six years out of high school (see Bloom & Owens, 2013;Domina, 2009;Lowman & Elliott, 2010;& Museus & Vue, 2013 for additional analyses of the ELS data set).…”

Gender, Anticipated Family Formation, and Graduate School Expectations Among Undergraduates

“…We also include demographic, background, and academic control variables that may confound relationships between anticipated family formation and educational expectations. Specifically, we control for age, year in school, mother's education, race/ethnicity, family structure, nativity, high school community type, grade point average (GPA), major, political ideology, and religious service attendance (Beal and Crockett ; Bohon, Johnson, and Gormon ; Crosnoe and Muller ; Feliciano and Lanuza ; Goyette ; Lowman and Elliott ; Morgan, Gelbgiser, and Weeden ; Mullen et al. ; Wells, Seifert, and Saunders ).…”

“…Expectations of educational attainment have risen over time in the United States in tandem with attainment itself. The overwhelming majority of high school students expect to earn a four‐year college degree, although, as of 2015, 33% of American adults 25 years of age and older held such a credential (Lowman and Elliott ; Ryan and Bauman ). Given high expectations and growing attainment, graduate or professional degrees have increasingly become the “passports” (Mullen et al.…”