RAPID: The Critical Ninth Grade Transition: Opportunities and Risks

本研究的目的是在关键的初中到高中的过渡期间，跟踪一个庞大的、种族多样化的中学生样本。由于九年级成绩通常是预测青少年是否留在高中或辍学的关键，因此该项目的首要目标是捕捉学生在这一重要时刻的经历。大样本（n = 1900）由拉丁裔，非裔美国人，亚洲/太平洋岛民，白人和多种族青年组成，他们将在2012年秋季过渡到高中。预计这些高中将有不同的种族/民族多样性，以便在高中过渡期间对种族/民族多样性的社会和学术利益以及挑战进行测试。将收集三个与成就有关的过程的数据。第一个过程是九年级的学习模式，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，学生是否注册了代数I，从而“准时”进入大学，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变得种族化的程度，特别是上课的方式可能会把学生按种族/民族隔离开来。已经制定了新的措施，可以精确估计个别学生在多大程度上与相同的同龄人一起进行学术指导，以及他们的学术课程在多大程度上代表了高中的种族/民族多样性。第三个过程是接触跨种族/民族同伴所提供的社会资本。据推测，非裔美国人和拉丁裔学生可能在不同的高中表现更好，因为他们通过跨种族关系获得了关于学术机会的重要知识（例如，选修什么课程，SAT准备）。因此，跨种族关系可以发挥同伴社会资本的作用，促进重要教育信息跨越种族/民族界限的流动。通过研究这三个与成就相关的过程（选课模式，选课是否会使学生沿着种族/民族界线隔离，以及同伴作为社会资本），该研究可以为有色人种青少年在高中过渡时面临的挑战以及在何种条件下更大的学校种族多样性可以缓冲这些挑战提供新的见解。该项目从三个方面解决了国家科学基金会的标准，以产生更广泛的影响。首先，本研究试图了解大型城市多民族公立高中的组织方式，以增加或阻碍少数民族青少年获得stem相关主题的能力和发展兴趣的机会。如果学生在高中没有充分的准备和信心，他们在大学里追求STEM领域的可能性就会大打折扣。其次，该项目将特别关注适应力强的青年和成功完成高中学业的先兆，甚至包括那些有很高辍学风险的青年。这样的结果可以对促进所有学生的学术参与和大学准备的发展实践产生有益的影响。第三，这项研究可以提供变革的方式来思考种族/民族多样性的意义和测量，以及在不同环境中与不同种族/民族背景的同龄人互动的机会。这一观点对其他社会环境的研究是有用的，在这些环境中，日益增加的种族多样性的影响是主要关注的问题，对多样性科学的新思考也是有用的。

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.