The current study, using data from 374 African American students (59.4% female) in grades 7-12 attending a rural, southern county public school, addressed associations of self-efficacy, ethnic identity and parental support with "future education orientation." Both gender and current level of achievement distinguished adolescents with…

The young adult years (approximately the age when one leaves high school to age 23) are pivotal to adult life success. They are the years when adolescents typically assume dramatic increases in responsibility for self-direction in areas such as socialization, independent living, citizenship, employment, education, and mental and physical health.…

The present study investigated to what extent the members of adolescents' peer groups share similar educational expectations, and to what extent overall and school-related adjustment are associated with these expectations. Three hundred and ninety-four ninth-graders facing the transition to secondary education filled in questionnaires measuring…

Vocational and technical education (VTE) has traditionally been stigmatised in Arab societies owing to the lowly image of manual work and the perception of VTE as a last resort for weak school students. This paper focuses on the transition to upper secondary VTE from the regular Lebanese school system and on students' aspirations once they have…

This report uses data from the 2003 National Household Education Surveys Program (NHES) Parent and Family Involvement Survey (PFI) to examine the characteristics associated with the educational expectations parents had for their children and the postsecondary education planning practices families and schools engaged in. The results presented in…

This study presents the educational and career goals and perceptions of supports and barriers related to these goals as described in semistructured interviews of 16 students from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds attending 9th grade at an urban public high school in a large Northeastern city. Using consensual qualitative research (CQR)…

This research examined changes in intrinsic and extrinsic motivation during the transition from junior to senior high school as well as the impact of motivational changes on various educational consequences (i.e., dropout intentions, absenteeism, homework frequency, and educational aspirations). A total of 646 participants completed a…

Drawing on developmental contextual theory, the authors examined the relationship of perceived barriers and support with school engagement and vocational attitudes among 9th-grade urban high school students in 2 studies. Study 1 (N=174) showed that both perceived barriers and perceived support from family kin were associated with youths'…

This study examined African American and White ninth grade students' aspirations for college attendance, utilizing the predisposition stage of Hossler and Gallegher's (1987) model of college choice as a conceptual framework. This study also introduced a measure of student perceptions of how well high school was preparing them for college. Findings…

Many commentators have indicated that our nation is in a crisis of character. This study examined the relationship between cheating and lying behaviors and constructs previous research has shown to be associated with health behaviors. Participants in the study were 700 students in grades 6-12 from a single southern school district. The…

In spring 2005, the Educational Policy Institute was contracted by an anonymous, non-profit, Missouri-based organization to conduct analysis of data from a series of focus groups of 7th, 9th, and 11th grade students. The purpose of the focus groups, conducted by the Change and Innovation Agency in Jefferson City, was to examine the postsecondary…

Few researchers have asked students directly about what they know and need to know regarding college and career planning. Given the critical choices made early in high school, ninth graders (n = 222) were surveyed regarding their educational and career plans and the resources they were using in their decision-making. Overall results as well as…