RAPID: The Critical Ninth Grade Transition: Opportunities and Risks

RAPID：关键的九年级过渡：机遇和风险

• 批准号: 1251576
• 负责人: Sandra Graham
• 金额: $ 14.21万
• 依托单位: University of California-Los Angeles
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-08-15 至 2013-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1251576&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RAPID; Critical; Ninth; Grade; Transition

The purpose of this research is to follow a large and ethnically diverse sample of middle school students across the critical middle school to high school transition. Because ninth grade achievement is often critical in predicting whether youth stay in or drop out of high school, the overarching goal of the project is to capture students' experiences at this significant juncture. The large sample (n = 1900) is comprised of Latino, African American, Asian/Pacific Islander, White, and multi-racial youth who will transition to high school in Fall of 2012. These high schools are expected to range in racial/ethnic diversity, allowing for tests of the social and academic benefits and challenges of racial/ethnic diversity during the high school transition. Data will be gathered on three achievement-related processes. The first process is academic course-taking patterns in ninth grade, including grades and credits earned. Because high school math largely functions as the gateway to high school completion and college readiness, there will be a particular focus on math course-taking in 9th grade (e.g., whether students are enrolled in Algebra I, and thus "on time" for college and whether they pass that course in 9th grade). The second process is the degree to which academic experiences become racialized, particularly the ways in which course-taking might segregate students along racial/ethnic lines. New measures have been developed that allow precise estimates of the degree to which individual students are teamed or clustered with the same peers for academic instruction and the degree to which their academic courses are representative of the racial/ethnic diversity of the high school. The third process is the social capital provided by exposure to cross-race/ethnic peers. It is hypothesized that African American and Latino students may fare better in diverse high schools because they gain access to important knowledge about academic opportunities (e.g., what courses to take, SAT preparation) through their cross-race ties. Thus cross-race ties can function as peer social capital, facilitating the flow of important educational information across racial/ethnic boundaries. By studying these three achievement-related processes (course-taking patterns, whether course-taking segregates students along racial/ethnic lines, and peers as social capital) the research can provide new insights into the challenges that adolescents of color face as they negotiate the high school transition as well as conditions under which greater school ethnic diversity can buffer some of those challenges. The project addresses NSF criteria for broader impact in three ways. First, the research seeks to understand the ways in which large, urban multi-ethnic public high schools are organized to increase or hinder the opportunities of racial and ethnic minority adolescents to acquire competence and develop interest in STEM-related subject matter. If students do not have adequate preparation and confidence during high school, their likelihood of pursuing STEM fields in college is greatly compromised. Second, the project will have a particular focus on resilient youth and the precursors of successful pathways to high school completion even among those at high risk of dropping out. Such results can have useful implications for developing practices that promote academic engagement and college readiness for all students. Third, the research can offer transformative ways to think about the meaning and measurement of racial/ethnic diversity and opportunities to interact with peers of different racial/ethnic backgrounds even in diverse settings. This perspective can be useful for research in other social settings where the implications of increasing ethnic diversity are a primary concern and for new thinking about a science of diversity.

本研究的目的是跟踪一个大的和不同种族的中学生样本在关键的初中到高中的过渡。由于九年级的成绩对于预测青少年是否留在高中或辍学通常至关重要，因此该项目的首要目标是捕捉学生在这个重要时刻的经历。 大样本（n = 1900）包括拉丁裔、非裔美国人、亚洲/太平洋岛民、白色和多种族青年，他们将在2012年秋季升入高中。这些高中预计将在种族/民族多样性的范围内，允许在高中过渡期间测试种族/民族多样性的社会和学术利益和挑战。 将收集三个与执行有关的进程的数据。第一个过程是九年级的学术课程学习模式，包括成绩和学分。由于高中数学在很大程度上是高中毕业和大学准备的门户，因此将特别关注9年级的数学课程（例如，学生是否参加代数I，从而“按时”上大学，以及他们是否在9年级通过了这门课程）。第二个过程是学术经历种族化的程度，特别是课程的学习可能会使学生沿着种族/民族线隔离。已经制定了新的措施，以便精确估计个别学生与相同的同龄人一起进行学术教学的程度，以及他们的学术课程在多大程度上代表了高中的种族/族裔多样性。 第三个过程是通过接触跨种族/民族同龄人提供的社会资本。据推测，非洲裔美国人和拉丁裔学生可能在不同的高中表现更好，因为他们获得了有关学术机会的重要知识（例如，参加什么课程，SAT准备）通过他们的跨种族关系。因此，跨种族关系可以作为同侪社会资本，促进重要的教育信息跨越种族/民族界限的流动。通过研究这三个与学业相关的过程（课程学习模式，无论是课程学习隔离学生沿着种族/民族线，和同龄人的社会资本）的研究可以提供新的见解的挑战，青少年的颜色面临的谈判，高中过渡以及条件下，更大的学校种族多样性可以缓冲一些这些挑战。 该项目以三种方式解决NSF标准的更广泛影响。 首先，该研究旨在了解大型城市多民族公立高中的组织方式，以增加或阻碍种族和少数民族青少年获得能力和培养对STEM相关主题的兴趣的机会。 如果学生在高中期间没有足够的准备和信心，他们在大学追求STEM领域的可能性就会大大降低。 第二，该项目将特别关注有复原力的青年以及成功完成高中学业的先驱，即使是那些辍学风险很高的青年。 这样的结果可以为开发实践，促进学术参与和大学准备为所有学生有用的影响。第三，这项研究可以提供变革性的方法来思考种族/民族多样性的意义和衡量标准，以及即使在不同的环境中与不同种族/民族背景的同龄人互动的机会。 这种观点可以是有用的研究在其他社会环境中的影响，越来越多的种族多样性是一个主要的关注和新的思维科学的多样性。