African American Students Perception In Public Schools
The Pennsylvania State University
The Graduate School
College of Education
AFRICAN-AMERICAN STUDENTS’ COLLEGE
TRANSITION TRAJECTORY: AN EXAMINATION OF
THE EFFECTS OF HIGH SCHOOL COMPOSITION
AND EXPECTATIONS ON DEGREE ATTAINMENT
A Thesis in
Educational Theory & Policy by © 2007 Tenisha L. Tevis
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
December 2007
The thesis of Tenisha L. Tevis was reviewed and approved* by the following:
Gerald LeTendre
Professor of Education
Thesis Adviser
Co-Chair of Committee
Regina Deil-Amen
Assistant Professor of Education
Co-Chair of Committee
Robert Reason
Assistant Professor of Education
George Farkas
Professor of Sociology
David Gamson
Associate …show more content…
According to Mickelson (1990), there are two sets of attitudes about schooling, abstract and concrete. Abstract attitudes, she explains, are directly related to the dominant American ideology, “that education is the solution to most social problems; Education paves the road to social mobility and is the remedy for poverty and unemployment” (p. 46). Concrete attitudes, which are class and race specific, are then based on the realities that people experience and can be similar to or completely different from the dominant ideology. Prior researchers (Hossler,
Schmidt & Vesper 1999; Qian & Blair, 1999; Venezia, Kirst, & Antonio, 2003) would agree with Mickelson that African-American students “embrace the dominant ideology about the positive links between education and mobility even more strongly than Whites” (Mickelson,
1990, p. 52), and that this accounts for Blacks’ abstract attitude about schooling. This is unfortunate because “without fundamental change in the larger opportunity structure,
The Graduate School
College of Education
AFRICAN-AMERICAN STUDENTS’ COLLEGE
TRANSITION TRAJECTORY: AN EXAMINATION OF
THE EFFECTS OF HIGH SCHOOL COMPOSITION
AND EXPECTATIONS ON DEGREE ATTAINMENT
A Thesis in
Educational Theory & Policy by © 2007 Tenisha L. Tevis
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
December 2007
The thesis of Tenisha L. Tevis was reviewed and approved* by the following:
Gerald LeTendre
Professor of Education
Thesis Adviser
Co-Chair of Committee
Regina Deil-Amen
Assistant Professor of Education
Co-Chair of Committee
Robert Reason
Assistant Professor of Education
George Farkas
Professor of Sociology
David Gamson
Associate …show more content…
According to Mickelson (1990), there are two sets of attitudes about schooling, abstract and concrete. Abstract attitudes, she explains, are directly related to the dominant American ideology, “that education is the solution to most social problems; Education paves the road to social mobility and is the remedy for poverty and unemployment” (p. 46). Concrete attitudes, which are class and race specific, are then based on the realities that people experience and can be similar to or completely different from the dominant ideology. Prior researchers (Hossler,
Schmidt & Vesper 1999; Qian & Blair, 1999; Venezia, Kirst, & Antonio, 2003) would agree with Mickelson that African-American students “embrace the dominant ideology about the positive links between education and mobility even more strongly than Whites” (Mickelson,
1990, p. 52), and that this accounts for Blacks’ abstract attitude about schooling. This is unfortunate because “without fundamental change in the larger opportunity structure,