Latina/o/x students aspire to earn a college degree but given that they likely attend urban high schools with inadequate educational opportunities and high-discipline environments, more research is needed to examine the influence of institutional racism on aspirations. This case study was guided by the frameworks of New Juan Crow in Education and…

Research shows that gang-associated youth are less likely to complete high school and earn a postsecondary educational credential. However, scholars have not determined "why" gang youth do not persist into higher education. This ethnographic study aims to focus on the narratives of 13 Latino high school young men to understand what…

Discussions on Latino/a students' interpretation of the opportunity structure and schooling treat racial/ethnic identification among Latino/as as static, despite skin color variation. This article provides findings from interviews with six Mexican students who discussed teachers identifying them as "White-looking" or…

The academic achievement rates of urban Latino students are significantly lower than those of non-minority youth. To date, most of the research on this topic has focused on learning and motivational characteristics of underrepresented youth in elementary and middle school and much less on urban high schools. This study investigated variables…

Through a Multiple Marginality Framework, this exploratory case study highlights how African American male youth in an urban high school setting perceive the opportunity structure during the historic election of the first African American President. Youth optimism generated by Obama's election gives students a sense of hope despite the persistent…

To assess whether a 5-month program involving attendance monitoring, sports participation, and a moral character class would reduce absenteeism, 40 students in a small transitional high school were randomly assigned to intervention and control groups and assessed pre- and postintervention on educational expectations, attitude toward education, and…

This mixed-methods study examined urban adolescents' perceptions of gender and racial/ethnic barriers to STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) success, and their meaning-making and coping regarding these experiences. The sample includes surveys from 1024 high school-aged students and interviews from 53 students. Logistic…

The educational aspirations of Black males in urban, suburban, and rural high schools were examined in this study, using a nationally-representative sample of respondents to the National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS:88/00). Hierarchical linear regression analysis revealed statistically significant relationships between aspirations and SES,…

Two concerns are explored here; the question of the existence and magnitude of contextual effects, and the possibility of an interaction between a school's context and a student's own SES background. Concludes that the large-scale manipulation of social contexts to secure increased academic performance may not be justifiable on grounds of…

Formulates three reference group hypotheses to explain why some disadvantaged students achieve more highly than others. Focusing on low SES Hispanic language minority students, analysis shows that both middle class and Hispanic reference group orientations have a positive impact on educational achievement. (PS)

Examined the perceptions of 70 urban and suburban African-American students regarding the influences on their decision making to participate or not participate in higher education. Findings show the importance of racial and cultural considerations and highlight the need for studying students' perceptions. (SLD)