Using data from the Educational Longitudinal Study of the National Center for Education Statistics, this article describes data concerning educational expectations and use of school counselors for students enrolled in special education. Participants included students enrolled in special education from urban, suburban, and rural settings. Chi…

Using data from the National Education Longitudinal Study, 1988 (NELS: 88), this paper documents differences in the socioeconomic plans of students in two-year and four-year colleges. We found attendance at a two-year college led to a modest but statistically significant disadvantage in socioeconomic plans. However, the impact of attending a…

While significant scholarly attention focuses on the development and testing of theoretically grounded models of the college choice process at the undergraduate level, far less research explores the area of graduate school enrollments. Graduate school choice, which is defined for the purposes of this paper as the decision to pursue any…

Learning context has increasingly been postulated to exert an influence on the dynamics of individual differences in language learning. In a longitudinal design that tested the proficiency gains of 1,682 learners over a 2-year foreign language program, a multilevel modeling approach was deployed in this study to account for variation in second…

This paper reports an analysis of the educational attainment and progress between age 11 and age 14 of over 14,500 students from the nationally representative Longitudinal Study of Young People in England. The mean attainment gap in national tests at age 14 between White British and several ethnic minority groups was large, more than three times…

Using a nationally representative sample from two waves of the National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS), this research examines the aspiration-attainment gap that exists for Black students (N = 823). This gap is a measure of the difference between the educational level students said they aspired to reach reported in 1988 when attending 8th…

This longitudinal study explored adolescents' future-oriented cognitions, current activities, and later educational attainment using data from 317 adolescents (55% female; mean age = 14.98 years, SD = 0.85) followed into early adulthood. Aspirations and expectations regarding work and education showed modest stability from year to year.…

Students from rural and low socioeconomic backgrounds do not pursue university education at the same rate as those from metropolitan areas or from higher socioeconomic backgrounds. This has been a long-standing issue for government. This study explores the aspirations and intentions for university education among low socioeconomic status (SES) and…

This study examined factors associated with the upward transfer of baccalaureate aspirants beginning at community colleges. Based on data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 and the Postsecondary Education Transcript Study, a sequential logistic regression analysis was conducted to predict bachelor's degree-seeking community…

This paper explores the ability of students to achieve their optimistic educational scenario (aspirations) and to provide contextual information on the factors which may have influenced their failure to do so. With a large sample of approximately 20,000 respondents from a government longitudinal database, the authors have been able to further…

Even with increased risks, many children demonstrate resiliency and avoid being labeled for special education; however, research on risk and resilience has been problematic because of inadequate statistical models, limitations of available data, and the exclusion of key protective factors. This study used a national sample to examine the influence…

This chapter examines development through different life transitions, such as educational transitions and transition to parenthood during adolescence to adulthood in the context of the life-span model of personal goals. According to the life-span model of motivation, four key mechanisms--channeling, choice, co-regulation, and compensation--play a…

We examined how the educational expectations that parents with mild intellectual deficits had for their children shaped their children's attainment, and how parents' own intellectual limitations affected this process. We identified 612 parents with mild intellectual deficits and 2,712 comparison parents from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, a…

This Statistics in Brief examines three cohorts of recent college graduates 1 year after they attained their bachelor's degree. The graduation years for the three cohorts span a 15-year period: 1992-93, 1999-2000, and 2007-08. The latest cohort (2007-08) graduated in the midst of the 2008 recession. This Statistics in Brief first examines how…

This study makes two contributions to the literature. First, it bridges the sociological discussion of social class habitus with psychological notions of adolescents' educational expectations, locus of control, and self-concepts. Second, it empirically examines the relationships between early employed parental practices and expectations and…