Collective Expectations Protecting and Preventing Academic Achievement

Abstract

High academic expectation—how far a student expects to get in school—is usually predictive of positive outcomes for a student. Yet less is known about mechanisms behind collective expectation: the proportion of students in a school who expect to pursue further studies. Using urban schools’ data from the Education Longitudinal Study 2002, this research examines how collective expectations affect short-term and long-term outcomes, and the predictors of these expectations. Through hierarchical linear models, I find that collective expectations are positively associated with academic outcomes, and that individual expectations remain significant even after controlling for socioeconomic status. I argue that the results illustrate how school structural and economic forces interact with collective expectations in protecting or preventing personal academic attainment.

High school never ends. Normative and comparative peer group effects on higher education outcomes through the school-level students’ expectation culture

“…Such a framework exerts pressure upon individual students to conform to the norm of higher education enrolment. Therefore, in line with the results of Trinidad (2018), we hypothesize that attending secondary schools with a higher expectation culture leads to higher chances to enrol in higher education.…”

“…In fact, different theoretical models on college enrolment identify students' post-secondary expectations in secondary education as the first step towards higher education enrolment (Hossler et al, 1989;Perna, 2006). Empirical research, furthermore, confirms that post-secondary expectations affect higher education enrolment (Bates and Anderson, 2014;Hill and Wang, 2015;Trinidad, 2018). While initial studies mostly looked at students' aspirationsthe education a student desires to attain -, later research showed expectationsthe education one expects to attainto be a better predictor of enrolment (Hanson, 1994).…”

“…With this in mind, we expand upon the idea of the importance of peers' expectations for students' educational decision-making to a school-wide peer expectation culture, based on fellow students' self-reported expectations. Recently, Trinidad (2018) called the mean level of expectations of all same-grade students in a school "collective expectation". However, we prefer to use the term school expectation culture to make an explicit link with this previous literature on school cultures.…”

“…As a result, these attitudes are likely to be shared within schools and may form the normative framework within a school, which affects all students. Indeed, research showed that youth's educational careers are affected by peer group expectations (Engberg and Wolniak, 2010;Palardy, 2015;Trinidad, 2018). Hence, a crucial part of the college-going culture is neglected when shared expectationsor peer expectation cultureare not investigated.…”

Barriers to Equality and Cultural Responsiveness in Three Urban Norwegian Primary Schools: A Critical Lens for School Staff Perceptions

“…Educational inequalities are constructed by specific conditions around and within a school, as schools play an essential role in equal opportunities, processes, and outcomes (Oppedisano & Turati, 2015;Trinidad, 2019). This article explores the Norwegian context and the challenges identified as unequal opportunities in education, specifically focusing on how school personnel address inequality and work to counteract exclusion.…”