Objective: We estimated the correlations between the "pathways" chosen by community college students--in terms of desired credentials and fields of study, as well as other choices and outcomes along the paths--and the attainment of credentials with labor market value. We focused on the extent to which there were recorded changes in…

Adolescence is a period when young people start to prepare for adult life. Teenagers have to make important decisions relevant to their working lives later on, such as what field of study or type of education they will pursue. But young people often lack sufficient knowledge about the breadth of job opportunities and careers open to them; their…

This paper re-examines the low participation of young people from deprived communities through the lens of the capability approach. A fundamental problem for tackling widening participation is that much of the thinking of policymakers is grounded on the flawed "poverty of aspiration thesis". This paper contends that Sen's [1992.…

We explore the concerns, challenges, aspirations, and expectations of sub-Saharan African youth, and investigate how these youth cope with neighborhood constraints to aspiration achievement. We draw on cross-sectional survey data from 4,033 12-22-year-olds (50.3% males) from two Kenyan urban slums and subsequent in-depth interviews conducted with…

Recent UK government statements and education policies have emphasized the need to instil a "culture of aspiration" among young people in deprived communities to address social exclusion. Specific proposals include raising the school leaving age to 18 and extending compulsory employment training. These statements and measures express the…

The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) and its companion projects serve colleges and universities committed to monitoring and improving the quality of the undergraduate experience. While participating institutions receive detailed customized reports, the "Annual Results" series presents noteworthy aggregate findings from the…

In 2015, the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) collected responses from more than 315,000 first-year and senior students attending 585 bachelor's degree-granting colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. This report presents selected NSSE results from students at 541 U.S. institutions or subsets of that group where…

While evaluating a project designed to improve certain skills and motivation of disadvantaged tenth graders, the authors developed a unique test for measuring college interest with the Kuder Occupational Interest Survey For DD. (Authors)

Review findings about aspirations and socio-economic status in Canada, explores the possibility of identifying disadvantaged groups and bringing about greater equality of educational opportunity, and suggests that egalitarians must look beyond the educational system to help remove some of the factors which educationally disadvantage the socially…

The paper represents a continuing effort at correcting misleading myths about the aspirations and expectations of disadvantaged rural youth. Useless or harmful policies and programs may result from the following erroneous assumptions: (1) that rural youth have low level aspirations for attainment; (2) that disadvantaged youth have low level…

Argues that although the genius of the community college idea rests in its capacity to channel aspirations for upward mobility into jobs needed by the economy, this mobility is for the most part illusory; thus the community college protects the portals of elite institutions. (Author/JM)

Examines occupational and educational aspirations and expectations of 13-year olds as influenced by local opportunity structures. It is argued that differences in aspirations and expectations are largely explained by the socioeconomic location of families rather than by the structure of the local labor market. (FC)

A review of the related literature indicates that research and youths' status projections have been traditionally characterized by a tendency toward psychological and behavioral conceptualizations, interpretations, and action implications. Aspiration and expectation elicitors, however, have primarily measured cultural value orientations. This…

The investigation reported here examined the power of a set of 31 situational and attitudinal variables to predict delinquency among inner-city youth and to draw some conclusions about the causes of delinquency insofar as they may be empirically determined. The data were obtained through survey interviews with 837 male youth living in…

A study was conducted in Logan County, Oklahoma, among rural disadvantaged high school students whose families' total income was $4,000 annually or below. The objectives of the study were: (1) to determine whether the source of family income, public or non-public assistance, had an effect upon academic performance of students from the same…