Educational Expectations Among African American Suburban Low to Moderate Income Public High School Students

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Journal of African American Studies ISSN 1559-1646Volume 19Number 2 J Afr Am St (2015) 19:135-156DOI 10.1007/s12111-015-9296-y

Educational Expectations Among AfricanAmerican Suburban Low to ModerateIncome Public High School Students

Veronica A. Newton & J. S. OnésimoSandoval

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ARTICLES

Educational Expectations Among African AmericanSuburban Low to Moderate Income Public HighSchool Students

Veronica A. Newton1& J. S. Onésimo Sandoval2

Published online: 14 April 2015# Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015

Abstract This study examined the educational expectations and value of educationamong St. Louis, suburban, low to moderate income, African American male andfemale adolescents. The following factors: perceptions of parents’ expectations,teachers’ expectations, and neighborhood quality were examined to explore the aca-demic gender disparity among African American high school students. Quantitativeanalyses showed that perceptions of teachers’ and parents’ expectations were associatedwith students’ educational expectations and value of education. The analyses alsoshowed that some demographic variables were associated with teachers’ and parents’expectations and value of education. No significant gender differences emerged be-tween African American males and females for educational expectations.

Keywords Educational expectations . Parents’ expectations . Teachers’ expectations .

Value of education . Suburban high school students

Introduction

For several decades, researchers have examined the disparities of the educationalexperiences and achievement among African American youth. This current study setout to uncover how African American adolescents’ perceptions of expectations ofparents and teachers, and neighborhood quality were related to their educational

J Afr Am St (2015) 19:135–156DOI 10.1007/s12111-015-9296-y

* Veronica A. [email protected]

J. S. Onésimo [email protected]

1 Department of Sociology, University of Missouri–Columbia, 312 Middlebush Hall, Columbia,MO 65211, USA

2 Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Saint Louis University, 3700 Lindell Blvd.,Saint Louis, MO 63108, USA

Author's personal copy

expectations. Using a sample of adolescents from a low to moderate income, suburbansetting who attended a public high school, we distributed a survey to understandassociations with students’ educational expectations and the value of education withtheir perceptions of parents’ and teachers’ expectations and neighborhood quality. Weexplored whether gender shaped these variables in regards to males’ and females’educational expectations. Similar studies have focused on African American adoles-cents residing in the inner city, urban settings (O’Connor 1997) and several studies onlyexplored African American males’ educational attainment and expectations (Cook et al.1996; Garcia Coll et al. 1996; Mizell 1999; Ramsey 2007).

There are few studies that examined African American youth that resided in asuburban setting such as Catching (2008) who used qualitative methods to analyzehigh and low achievement among African American males and McCabe and Barnett(2000) who also utilized qualitative methods, finding no gender differences. Griffin andAllen (2006) studiedAfricanAmericanmales and females in suburban and urban settingswhile utilizing qualitative methods, but they did not find any gender differences ineducational expectations. Gender differences among African American youth have beenstudied before utilizing quantitative methods (Fordham 1985; Carter 2005; Rollins andValdez 2006; O’Connor 1997; Mello and Swanson 2007; Wood et al. 2007, 2011;Nichols et al. 2009); however, the neighborhood settings were in the inner city.

Due to the trend of African American males earning fewer college degrees than theirfemale counterparts and many colleges and universities having low retention rates forAfrican American males (Ryu 2008), we initially set out to explore why fewer maleswere entering college. Moreover, we were curious for those African American maleswho did enter college were they less likely to complete the degree. With this in mind,we decided to look at high school students because we figured the lack of motivation orlow expectations for higher education for males must derive from previous schooling.Also, we thought that examining high school students would be beneficial since highschool is a place where students start to accumulate the human and cultural capital thatis necessary for college. Examining males’ and females’ expectations, which has beendocumented to be indicative of students’ actual attainment for current and futuresuccess in college, allowed us to uncover contributing factors to this academic-related gender disparity. Students’ preparation for college is often based on their valueof education and more specifically whether African American students are afforded theopportunity to acquire dominant cultural capital, an essential aspect for social mobilityand success in higher education.

On the whole, examining gender and educational expectations of African Americanyouth within a suburban setting is important from a theoretical perspective. To ourknowledge, Eccles’ and Wigfield’s Expectancy Value Theory and Wilson’ SocialDisorganization Theory have not been applied to students’ values and expectations ofeducation within a suburban setting while utilizing a quantitative approach. Boththeories state that when examining educational expectations, one should look at thecontext as a contributing factor. Since urban settings are typically the context whenstudying expectations of African American youth, this is our contribution to the field tohelp fill in the gap of literature when researching educational expectations of AfricanAmerican students within a suburban neighborhood.

This article will discuss past findings on gender differences of educational expecta-tions among African American youth as well as student’s value of education and

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demographic variables. Perceptions of teachers’ and parents’ educational expectationsalso will be discussed. Also, perception of neighborhood quality in terms of student’svalue of education will be discussed. Next, research design, research questions, andprocedures utilized in this current study will be described. We utilized multipleregression analyses to find significant associations between the independent variablesand the dependent variable. Adolescents’ educational expectation was the dependentvariable in this research design. There were four independent variables in this study.The first independent variable was gender; the second independent variable was thestudents’ perceptions of teachers’ educational expectations. The third independentvariable was the students’ perceptions of their parents’ educational expectations. Thefourth independent variable was perception of neighborhood quality. Lastly, results,discussion, conclusion, and implications will conclude the article.

Gender Differences

Research shows that African American students tend to earn lower grades, drop out ofschool more often, and attain less education than their White counterparts (Mickelson1990). In a study conducted by Steinberg et al. (1992) with White, Black, Asian, andHispanic high school students, African American and Hispanic youth earnedlower grades in school than their Asian and White counterparts. In terms ofgender, Ryu (2008) stated that in 2006, 81 % of African American womenbetween the ages of 18 and 24 held high school credentials (i.e., high schooldiploma or GED), whereas their male counterparts held only 72 % of the samehigh school credentials (i.e., high school diploma or GED). College completionrates also follow a similar trend with 8.7 % of African Americans graduatingfrom a 4-year college compared to 75 % of their White counterparts graduatingfrom a 4-year college (Hoffman et al. 2003).

Enrolling in college immediately after graduation is critical in the completion of acollege degree. Research shows that when students do not enroll in college right aftergraduation, they are more likely to not attend college or to not complete their degree.Bozisk and DeLuca (2005) found that delaying college entry by just 1 year reduces theodds of completing a college degree by 64 % and African Americans are more likely todelay postsecondary enrollment than White and Asian students. Research also showsthat gender plays a role in immediate enrollment and college completion. King (2000)stated that among low-income African Americans, only 32 % of male high schoolgraduates immediately entered post-secondary institutions, as compared to 51 % ofAfrican American females. Also, African American men have the lowest collegecompletion rate of any ethnic/racial group and among both sexes at 32.8 %(Chronicle of Higher Education Almanac 2006).

The gender gap among African Americans’ educational attainment is a larger gapthan other gender gaps for other race/ethnic groups (Ryu 2008). A study by Peter andHorn (2005) showed that African American men earned only 34 % of all bachelor’sdegrees awarded in America. Another study (Ryu 2008) showed that in 2005, AfricanAmerican women earned about twice as many bachelor’s degrees than AfricanAmerican men (about 90,000 awarded to women vs. about 46,000 awarded to men).In the same year, African American women earned about 40,000 post-baccalaureate

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degrees (e.g., master’s and doctoral degrees), whereas 16,000 such degrees wereawarded to African American men. No other racial group showed these trends forgender and academic attainment (Ryu 2008).

Educational Expectations

Educational expectations have been documented to predict eventual educational attain-ment. Educational expectations can be understood as one’s educational aspirations,referring to a student’s view and/or perception of his or her intention to pursue and/orobtain additional education in the future (Campbell 1983; Nichols et al. 2009). AfricanAmerican adolescents’ aspirations may represent their educational hopes, but theireventual educational attainment may be affected by their concrete attitudes towardstheir educational opportunities. These educational opportunities are often shaped by thelack of resources, stereotypes, low teacher expectations, and other social barriers.Studies show that African American boys hold higher educational expectations fortheir female counterparts (Carter 2005; Mello and Worrell 2006; Mello and Swanson2007; Wood et al. 2007) and perceive high academic levels of attainment for AfricanAmerican females than for themselves (Mau and Bikos 2000; Carter 2005; Chavousand Cogburn 2007; Mello and Swanson 2007). African American females also heldlower educational expectations for African American males (Carter 2005; Wood et al.2007). Hudley and Graham (2002) found that both male and female African Americanadolescents overwhelmingly associated high levels of achievement strivings withAfrican American girls and low levels with African American boys.

According to the National Center for Educational Statistics (2007), AfricanAmerican boys experienced more academic difficulties and fewer academic successesthan their female counterparts (Noguera 2003; Roderick 2003). Prominent genderdisparities favoring African American females have been documented for schoolachievement (Mickelson and Greene 2006), referral and participation in honorsprograms, advanced courses during high school, and completion of college(Garibaldi 2007; Ryu 2008; Wood et al. 2010). Also, African American boysare more likely than girls to be placed in special education classes (Carter2005), to be suspended from school, to exhibit grade retention, and to exhibitpoor academic performance (Wood et al. 2007).

Luster and McAdoo (1996) stated that students’ motivation is positively related toacademic achievement among African American youth. Eccles’ and Wigfield’sexpectancy-value model of achievement and motivation also demonstrates AfricanAmerican males’ low educational expectations. According to this theory, task-specific motivation depends heavily on an individual’s expectation for success at thetask and the level of value that he or she attaches to the task (Wigfield and Eccles 2000;Eccles and Wigfield 2002). Due to racialized academic gender stereotypes, AfricanAmerican females hold higher educational expectations, which lead African Americanyouth to endorse these stereotypes resulting in the devaluation and low expectations ofacademics for African American males (Chavous et al. 2008). Since African Americanmales typically have less positive experiences in school, they may be less motivated,which is a contributing factor for males holding lower self-esteem and lower self-expectations than females.

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Teachers’ Expectations

According to Ford and Harris (1996), even in predominately African Americanschools, African American students have White teachers who are unlikely to havereceived extensive training in multicultural education. Lee and Burkam (2002) reportedthat teachers of African American students were less experienced and had fewerprofessional development courses than teachers of White or Asian American students.Research shows that the teacher/classroom interactions indicate the perceptions ofstrong teacher support and high expectations for African American youth in terms ofhigher self-efficacy, motivational efforts, and school performance (Smith 1980; Good1981; Marcus et al. 1991; Honora 2003).

Teachers’ educational expectations for students also influence students’ academicattainment. The beliefs and expectations that teachers have about their students maybecome self-fulfilling prophecies for students in terms of high academic performance orlow academic performance (Brophy and Good 1974; Jussim 1998; Gill and Reynolds1999). For example, teachers may react to certain students in particular ways by callingupon students more frequently, praising students for success, and preferentialtreatment to particular students (Gill and Reynolds 1999). However, someresearch does show that teacher expectations do not significantly predict youth’sexpectations (Wood et al. 2007).

Teacher bias and stereotypes begin early in students’ education. Research shows thatelementary school teachers held lower expectations for current and future success formales than females (Ross and Jackson 1991). Wood et al. (2007) showed that by6 years of age, teachers already held low expectations for African American males. Inthat same study, teachers in all grade levels held lower expectations for future attain-ment for African American males than females. Teachers who are gender biased maybe less motivated to ensure that male students receive proper academic preparationnecessary for admission to and success in college. Teachers often choose to focus onpupils whom they believe are more likely to reap the benefits of teacher efforts andassistance. As Wood et al. (2007) stated, BIf this type of teacher bias were to occurrepeatedly across time, meaningful differences between educational outcomes forAfrican American males compared with females will emerge^ (p. 424). AfricanAmerican students, especially males, are likely to receive no praise and silence in theclassroom from teachers (Carter 2005). If African American students, particularlymales, fall into this category, their chances for success and future attainment may below.

Parents’ Expectations

Parental expectations are another contributing factor for the gender disparities ineducation among African American youth. Parental expectations have been definedas short-term expectations for specific grades (Entwisle and Hayduk 1978); long-termeducational attainment such as high school, college, post-and baccalaureate degrees(Pugh 1976; Woelfel and Haller 1971); and future educational expectations (Kurtz-Costes et al. 1995; Gill and Reynolds 1999). Entwisle and Hayduk (1978) found thatchildren’s school performance became more consistent over time with their parents’

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expectations. A study conducted by Gill and Reynolds (1999) showed that childrenwho reported greater parent expectations to do well in school received significantlyhigher reading and math scores in the 6th grade. Children’s perception about theirparents’ expectations for school is influential of the child’s educational expectations.However, research shows that children’s perceptions about their parents’ expectationsfor school success is more influential than just parents’ expectations (Phillips 1987;Jacobs 1991).

Boocock (1972) indicated that socioeconomic status, race, and background charac-teristics of parents and children influenced the degree to which parents set high goalsfor themselves and their children. African American parents’ expectations fortheir children’s future attainment have been shown to predict youths’ own expectations(Trusty 2002; Wood et al. 2007). Single African American mothers’ expectation of theirchild’s educational attainment was consistent with the child’s educational attainment(Wood et al. 2007). This means that if the mother held low educational expectations forher child, then the child held low expectations, as was consistent with high expectations(Riccitui 2010).

There are gender differences in terms of parents’ educational expectations forAfrican American children. Parents tend to hold lower educational expectations fortheir sons than their daughters. In a study conducted on African American youthby Wood et al. (2007), parents reported lower expectations for future attainmentfor their sons than their daughters. In another study conducted by Wood et al.(2010) on African American youth, 67 % of mothers endorsed the stereotype thatboys are less competent than girls in academic domains. Also, mothers whoendorsed that stereotype viewed daughters as more academically capable and sonsas less academically capable. These results suggest that parents’ gender stereotypeendorsement may shape the achievement outcomes of African American youth.Other related studies showed consistent finding such as Chavous et al. (2008),showing that 67 % of mothers endorsed stereotypes that boys are less competentthan girls in academic domains. The endorsement of this stereotype was related tomothers’ expectations for eventual educational attainment and perceptions of theirchild’s competence. Neuenschwander et al. (2007) stated that parents who per-ceive that boys are less competent than girls may undermine boys’ confidence intheir own abilities which lessens males’ academic orientation.

Research also showed that parent and teacher expectations combined can becomeself-expectations for students. Wood et al. (2007, p.423) reported that Bparent expec-tation×teacher expectation interaction was a significant predictor of youths’expectations^. Also, when teachers appear to be cognizant of parents’ expectationsand these expectations are conveyed to the children, this has been shown to beassociated with students’ math and reading achievement (Gill and Reynolds 1999;Wood et al. 2007). Children are able to perceive teachers’ and parents’ expectations forthem through classroom behavior indicators. When children are perceived as lesscapable in terms of academics, parents and teachers are less likely to encourage themto take challenging coursework, even when children’s achievement scores qualify foradvanced courses (Hrabowski et al. 1998). Research also shows that if AfricanAmerican boys perceive that their parents and teachers hold lower expectations forthem and higher expectations for girls, academic gender gaps become more prominent(Wood et al. 2007, 2010).

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Quality of Neighborhoods

Research suggests that a neighborhood’s socioeconomic status is positively associatedwith educational expectations (Hope 1995; Quane and Rankin 1998; Ceballo et al.2004). Stevenson (1997) stated that Social Disorganization Theory (Wilson 1987)emphasizes the need for social capital relationships in the lives of youth and positsthat the disintegration of local communities and neighborhoods negatively influencesthe healthy adjustment of children and families. The more socially disorganized aneighborhood is in terms of supervision, closeness, and participation, the more likelythe neighborhood is to have higher crime rates and negative health outcomes forfamilies and children (Sampson 1992). Studies show that neighborhood quality maybe associated with adolescents’ expectations through role-modeling and social disor-ganization factors (Wilson 1987; Sampson 1997; Mizell 1999).

African American youth are more likely to reside in low-income neighborhoodswith lack of resources that offer few educational opportunities and high concentrationsof unemployed adults (Wilson 1987; Massey and Shibuya 1995; Burton and Jarrett2000; Leventhal and Brooks-Gunn 2000). These adults serve as role models for AfricanAmerican youth and may become negative influences and limit their educationalattainment (Mizell 1999). In Carter’s research (2005), interviews with AfricanAmerican males demonstrate that at times they would rather hang out on the streetwith older men who were drug dealers than attend school and complete homeworkassignments.

Eccles and Wigfield (2002) stated that when discussing gender differences inexpectations and academic outcomes for African American males and females, onemust consider social settings such as neighborhoods as a contributing factor. Mello andSwanson (2007) found that African American adolescents’ future expectations werepositively associated with perception of neighborhood quality. Gender was also afactor, stating that females reported more positive expectations than males andperception of neighborhood quality which was indicative of educational expectations.Studies from Sampson (1997) and Sampson et al. (1997) showed that the higheradolescents rated the quality of their neighborhoods, the more likely the adolescentsexpected to attain high school diplomas and college degrees. Mello and Swanson(2007) also reported that the more negatively African American males perceived theirneighborhoods, the less likely they thought they would obtain a high school and collegedegree.

Research Design and Questions

The purpose of this study was to examine the contributing factors in the genderdisparities of educational expectations for low to moderate income African Americanadolescents. As stated in the literature review, males tend to hold lower educationalexpectations than their female counterparts (Carter 2005). Males also perceived thattheir teachers and parents hold lower educational expectations for male students (Woodet al. 2011). Lastly, neighborhoods with social disorganization have been shown toinfluence students’ value of education (Mello and Swanson 2007). With all of thesefactors pertaining to African American students’ educational expectations, this study set

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out to obtain findings that may help explain this gender-based disparity in education.The following research questions and hypotheses, based on previous literature, havebeen developed to study the gender differences among African American youth at asuburban public school located in the Saint Louis metropolitan region.

1. Will African American males and females perceive that African American maleswill hold lower educational expectations than African American females?

H1: I hypothesize that the African American males will hold lower educationalexpectations than African American females.

2. Will African American males perceive teachers’ low expectations for them andhigh expectations for females?

H2: I hypothesize that African American males will expect their teachers to holdlower educational attainment for males.

3. Will African American males and females perception of parental expectationsbecome their expectation for education?

H3: I hypothesize that African American males will expect their parents to holdlower educational attainment for males.

4. Will perception of neighborhood quality, characterized by social disorganization,be a contributing factor for African American youths’ value of education?

H4: I hypothesize that African American males’ and females’ value of educationwill be influenced by perception of neighborhood quality and social disor-ganization factors.

For this study, we utilized a quantitative method. The design consisted of an on-lineself-report survey (Cook and Ludwig 1997; Eccles 1997) utilizing questions to estab-lish students’ educational expectations, value of education, perceptions of parents’ andteachers’ expectations as well as perception of neighborhood quality. First, the surveygauged if gender was a significant factor in students’ educational expectations. Thesurvey also answered questions regarding level of students’ educational expectationsand perceptions of parents’ and teachers’ educational expectations. Lastly, the surveyprovided evidence of students’ value of education and whether it was correlated withperception of neighborhood quality.

For this research design, we used purposive sampling to recruit participants for thisstudy. We chose a non-probability sample since targeting this specific populationhelped us better understand the independent and dependent variables in this study.We utilized multiple regression to find significant associations between the independentvariables and the dependent variable. Our dependent variable was adolescents’ educa-tional expectations. There were four independent variables in this study: gender, thestudents’ perceptions of teachers’ educational expectations, the students’ perceptions oftheir parents’ educational expectations, and the perception of neighborhood quality. We

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created a baseline model with demographic variables, followed by five additionalmodels, which showed the results of the independent variables, as well as demographicand independent variables combined. We also created four additional models todemonstrate students’ value of education and demographic variables, perception ofparents’ expectations, and perception of neighborhood quality.

We obtained a written letter of permission and cooperation from the superintendentof the Cleargate School District and the principal of Cleargate High School.1 To recruitparticipants, we spoke with students by grade level during assemblies and discussed thestudy, their involvement if they participated, and what they would receive uponcompletion of the study. Postcards were sent to the students’ homes asking them toreturn the postcard to their school and drop it in the drop box labeled MissouriUniversity,2 located at the security officer’s station, if they were interested in partici-pating in the study. Once we received the postcards, we mailed the students consentforms for approval of participation from their legal guardian. The consent form wassigned by the parent or guardian as well as the student and mailed back to us, as weprovided an envelope and postage. Once we received the consent form, we emailed thelink to the survey to their email addresses. The email instructed the students to completethe self-report survey online during their free time before or after school. All of thesurveys utilized in this study were available through Qualtrics Survey Software. Thesurvey took between 5–25 minutes for participants to complete. Once all the surveyswere completed, data was collected from the online surveys and was entered andanalyzed by SPSS. Lastly, all students were given a $5 Target gift card for theirparticipation in the study.

The Cleargate High School student body was 96 % African American out of 1452(DESE 2011). All African American students by grade level were sent out postcards forrecruitment for participation in the study. The total number of students who returnedtheir postcards in the drop box was 120, the number of students who returned consentforms was 92, and the number of students who participated in the survey was 84. Out ofthe 84 participants who took the survey, only 80 of the surveys were complete and datawas collected from 34 male and 46 female participants (n=80). Sixty-eight studentsreported that they were African American (85 %) and 12 students stated that they werebi-racial or multi-racial with African American and another race (15 %). Of the sample,3.8 % were 9th graders (n=3), 13.8 % were 10th graders (n=11), 33.8 % were 11thgraders (n=27), and 39 % were 12th grader (n=48). Participants ranged between theages of 14 and 18 years. The average age of the participants was 16.7 years (SD=1.025). The average age of the male participants was 16.5 (SD=3.007) and the averageage of female participants was 16.5 (SD=1.168).

The neighborhood in which the participants resided in was considered a low tomoderate income area. Approximately 57.6 % of the students in the school districtreceived free/reduced lunches (DESE 2011). The demographics of the student body ofthe school district were listed as 70.9 % Black or African American (DESE 2011). Theteacher demographic in the school district was 70 % White American (DESE 2011).Seven participants reported they came from low-socioeconomic status (8.8 %), 67participants reported they came from middle-socioeconomic status (83.8 %), and six

1 Cleargate High School is a pseudonym for the high school to protect the identities of participants.2 Missouri University is a pseudonym.

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participants stated they came from high-socioeconomic status (7.5 %). About 81.3 % ofparticipants reported they were involved in extra-curricular activities (n=65), while18.8 % reported not being involved in any extra-curricular activities (n=15). Out of81.3 % of participants involved in extra-curricular activities, 48 % of activities werelocated in participants’ neighborhoods (n=39), while 51.3 % reported activities notlocated in the neighborhood or no involvement in extra-curricular activities (n=41). All46 female participants reported being involved in extra-curricular activities, while 31out of the 34 males reported being involved in extra-curricular activities.

Results

The purpose of this study was to answer the research questions regarding whethermales will hold lower educational expectations than females, perceive that teachers andparents will hold higher educational expectations for females, and to look at students’value of education with perception of neighborhood quality. Table 1 lists and definesthe variables. The descriptive statistics indicated that the sample had an averagepersonal educational expectation of 13.93 (SD=1.77). The average value of educationwas 16.02 (SD=1.77). There was an average for perception of teachers’ educationalexpectations of 5.10 (SD=1.038). There was an average for perception of parents’educational expectations of 5.41 (SD=0.882). A mean neighborhood perception was16.71 (SD=2.701) (see Table 2).

We did the analysis for ten models. Models 1 through 6 represent models foreducational expectations. Model 1 was the demographic baseline model. Model 2was the gender model. Model 3 was the teachers’ belief model. Model 4 was theparents’ beliefs model. Model 5 was the perception of neighborhood model. Model 6was the full model for students’ educational expectations. This final model explored the

Table 1 Variable definitions

Variable Definition

Dependent variable for Table 3 Educational expectations

Dependent variable for Table 4 Value of education

Neighborhood activities Involvement in any after-school activities within the neighborhood

Extra-curricular activities Involvement in any after-school activities

Race African American, or African American plus another race

Socioeconomic status Low socioeconomic, middle socioeconomic, high socioeconomic status

Grade Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, Senior

Father’s level of education Level of education achieved: high school, college, graduate degree

Mother’ s level of education Level of education achieved: high school, college, graduate degree

Gender Male or female

Teachers’ beliefs Adolescent’s perception of teacher’s educational expectation

Parents’ beliefs Adolescent’s perception of parent’s educational expectations

Perception of neighborhood Adolescent’s perception of neighborhood quality they reside in

Table computed by authors, data from Cleargate High School

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relationship between the demographic variables, gender, teachers’ expectations, par-ents’ expectations, and perception of neighborhood with educational expectations.Models 7–10 represent models for value of education. Model 7 was the demographicbaseline model. Model 8 was the parents’ beliefs model. Model 9 was theperception of neighborhood model. Model 10 was the full model for value ofeducation. This final model explored the relationship between the baselinevariables and students’ expectations of parent’s beliefs, and perception ofneighborhood with value of education.

Model 1 shows the demographic variables: race, socioeconomic status, father’s levelof education, mother’s level of education, involvement in extra-curricular activities, andinvolvement in extra-curricular activities in the neighborhood between adolescents’educational expectations. The results showed that there was a significant relationshipbetween students’ educational expectations and their involvement in extra-curricularactivities (β=0.321, p<0.001). There was also a significant relationship betweenstudents’ educational expectations and mother’s level of education (β=0.367,p<0.01). There was not a significant relationship between students’ educational ex-pectations and father’s level of education, grade, race, socioeconomic status, andinvolvement in neighborhood extra-curricular activities.

In model 2, gender was not a contributing factor among educational expectations(β=0.002, p=0.986). Model 3 shows that there was a significant relationship betweenstudents’ and teachers’ educational expectations (β=0.480, p<0.001). Model 4 showsthat there was a significant relationship between students’ and parents’ educationalexpectations (β=0.426, p<0.001). Model 5 shows there was not a statistically signif-icant correlation between educational expectations and perception of neighborhoodquality (β=−0.600, p=0.595).

Table 2 Descriptive statistics

Descriptive statistics Mean Standard deviation Min. Max.

Students’ educational expectations 13.9375 1.77 8 15

Value of education 16.026 1.77 12 20

Grade 3.28 0.842 1 4

Socioeconomic status 1.99 0.405 1 3

Father’s level of education 2.29 0.697 1 4

Mother’s level of education 2.68 0.725 1 4

Teacher’s beliefs 5.10 1.038 1 6

Parent’s beliefs 5.41 0.882 1 6

Perception of neighborhood 16.7125 2.70112 11 24

African American 0.85 % 1

African American and another race 0.15 % 0

Males 47.50 % 1

Females 52.50 % 0

Extra-curricular activities 81.20 % Yes No

Neighborhood activities 48.70 % Yes No


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Model 6 shows that there was a statistically significant relationship between stu-dents’ educational expectations and the following variables: perception of teachers’educational expectations (β=0.312, p<0.05), mother’s level of education (β=0.262,p<0.01), and extra-curricular activities (β=0.239, p<0.05). Socioeconomic status (β=−0.17, p<0.10) was moderately statistically significant with students’ educationalexpectations. There were no statistically significant relationship between students’educational expectations and the following variables: gender, race, grade level, father’slevel of education, and neighborhood extra-curricular activities.

Model 7 shows the demographic baseline variables for the value of education. Onlygrade level was negatively related with students’ value of education (β=−0.220,p<0.10). None of the other variables were statistically significant. Model 8 shows thatthere was not a statistically significant relationship between students’ value of educa-tion and parents’ educational expectations (β=−0.126, p=0.264). Model 9 shows therewas a significant relationship between adolescents’ value of education and perceptionof neighborhood quality (β=0.262, p<0.05). Model 10 shows that there was astatistically significant relationship between students’ value of education andstudents’ perception of neighborhood quality (β=0.354, p<0.01). Grade level wassignificant in terms of students’ value of education (β=−0.129, p<0.05). Perceptionof parents’ beliefs was also negatively correlated with students’ value of education(β=−0.232, p<05). Father’s level of education was statistically significant withstudents’ value of education (β=0.205, p<0.10) as well as involvement in extra-curricular activities correlated with students’ value of education (β=0.226, p<0.10)(Tables 3 and 4).

Discussion

The purpose of this study was to examine and explore the gender differences in theeducational expectations among low to moderate income African American male andfemale suburban high school students. Drawing from the Eccle’s and Wigfield’sExpectancy Value Theory (2002), it was hypothesized that gender differences wouldemerge through educational expectations for self, perception of teachers’ expectations,and perception of parents’ expectations. However, gender was not a statisticallysignificant factor when examining students’ educational expectations, so we failed toreject the null hypothesis for the first hypothesis. Griffin and Allen (2006) did not findgender differences in educational expectations among males and females whileutilizing qualitative methods in a comparative study of high schools insuburban and urban neighborhoods. Furthermore, McCabe and Barnett (2000)did not find gender differences while being located in an urban area, alsoutilizing qualitative methods to explore African American student’s plans forfuture success and careers.

Since gender was not a significant factor when determining students’ educationalexpectations, we failed to reject the null for the second hypothesis that AfricanAmerican males would perceive that their teachers’ would hold lower educationalexpectations for them. Moreover, students’ perception of teachers’ educational expec-tations was significantly correlated with students’ educational expectations (Brophyand Good 1974; Jussim 1998; Gill and Reynolds 1999; Jussim and Harber 2005).

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Tab

le3

Students’educationalexpectations

Firstanalysis

Model1

Model2

Model3

Model4

Model5

Model6

Coefficient

sig.

Coefficient

sig.

Coefficient

sig.

Coefficient

sig.

Coefficient

sig.

Coefficient

sig.

Neighborhoodactiv

ities

0.174

0.118

0.152

0.132

Extra-curricularactiv

ities

0.321

0.006***

0.265

0.011**

Race

−0.026

0.801

−0.112

0.262

Socioeconomicstatus

−0.157

0.112

−0.154

0.079*

Grade

0.040

0.681

0.073

0.444

Father’slevelof

education

0.040

0.710

0.047

0.627

Mother’slevelof

education

0.367

0.000****

0.256

0.010**

Gender

0.002

0.986

0.013

0.890

Teachers’beliefs

0.480

0.000****

0.318

0.010**

Parents’beliefs

0.426

0.000****

0.17

0.164

Perceptionof

neighborhood

−0.600

0.595

−0.065

0.481

Educatio

nalexpectations

Modelsignificance

0.000

R2

0.355

0.002

0.48

0.426

0.060

0.526

R2adjusted

0.293

0.000

0.231

0.182

0.004

0.45

F5.569

**0.000

23.398

****

17.309

****

0.286

6.87

**

N80

8080

8080

80

Tablecomputedby

authors,datafrom

CleargateHighSchool

*p<0.10,*

*p<0.05,*

**p<0.01,*

***p

<0.001

J Afr Am St (2015) 19:135–156 147


Thirdly, it was hypothesized that African American males would perceive that theirparents would hold lower educational expectations for males. Again, since it wasestablished that gender was not a significant factor when predicting males’ and females’perceptions of educational expectations, we failed to reject the null for the thirdhypothesis. However, students’ educational expectations were significantly cor-related with parents’ educational expectations (Phillips 1987; Entwisle andHayduk 1978; Jacobs 1991; Steinberg et al. 1992; Honora 2002; Trusty 2002;Prelow et al. 2007; Ramsey 2007; Wood et al. 2007, 2011). There also was nota significant relationship between students’ educational expectations and per-ception of neighborhood quality.

In terms of demographic variables, there was a relationship between students’educational expectations and mother’s level of education. Previous studies have foundthis relationship which stresses the importance of mother’s education with students’academic outcomes (Trusty 2002; Wood et al. 2007; Riccitui 2010). Another variablenot predicted was the relationship between students’ educational expectations andinvolvement in extra-curricular activities which has been stressed before in previousstudies (Larson 2000; Eccles et al. 2003; Mahoney et al. 2003; Fieldman and Matjasko2005; Freidricks and Eccles 2006) as an important aspect for school connectedness foradolescents. This also may give more insight to the Social Disorganization Theory(Wilson 1987) and to the importance of neighborhoods with resources of structuredactivities for adolescents when determining the factors of education.

Table 4 Students’ value of education

Second analysis Model 7 Model 8 Model 9 Model 10

Coefficient sig. Coefficient sig. Coefficient sig. Coefficient sig.

Neighborhood activities −0.184 0.165 −0.199 0.114

Extra-curricular activities 0.166 0.221 0.226 0.080*

Race 0.042 0.734 −0.025 0.835

Socioeconomic status 0.005 0.969 −0.015 0.894

Grade −0.220 0.064* −0.279 0.021**

Father’s level of education 0.168 0.189 0.205 0.089*

Mother’s level of education −0.069 0.573 −0.064 0.599

Gender 0.039 0.741

Parents’ beliefs −0.126 0.264 −0.232 0.049**

Perception of neighborhood 0.262 0.019** 0.364 0.002**

Value of education

Model significance 0.498 0.036

R2 0.082 0.126 0.262 0.233

R2 adjusted −0.007 0.016 0.069 0.122

F 0.917 1.260 5.750 * 2.097 **

N 80 80 80 80


*p<0.10, **p<0.05, ***p<0.01, ****p<0.001

148 J Afr Am St (2015) 19:135–156


The negative relationship between socioeconomic status and students’ educa-tional expectations infers that the higher the students’ socioeconomic status thelower the students’ educational expectations (Luster and McAdoo 1996; Ramsey2007; Chavous et al. 2008; Wood et al. 2010). This was a thought-provokingfinding since extra-curricular activities, which are indicative of a higher incomeneighborhood with resources, were positively correlated with students’ educationalexpectations.

Although gender was not statistically significant with educational expecta-tions, further analysis was conducted to uncover whether perception of neigh-borhood quality was a contributing factor for students’ value of education.Utilizing Wilson’s Social Disorganization Theory (1987), it was hypothesizedthat males’ and females’ value of education would be correlated with perceptionof neighborhood quality. The baseline model showed that demographicvariables, besides grade level, were not statistically correlated with students’value of education. However, as hypothesized, students’ value of education wasstatistically correlated with perception of neighborhood quality (Sampson 1997;Mizell 1999; Mello and Swanson 2007); therefore, we were able to reject thenull and accept the alternative hypothesis. Wilson’s Social DisorganizationTheory (1987) which was based on the contextual factor of urban neighbor-hoods can be applicable to suburban settings when determining AfricanAmerican adolescents’ perception of neighborhood quality with their value ofeducation.

When demographic variables were combined with the independent variablesof perception of parents’ beliefs and perception of neighborhood quality,several demographic variables became statistically significant. Extra-curricularactivities were significantly correlated with students’ value of education.Father’s level of education was correlated with students’ value of education.Also, perception of parents’ beliefs was negatively correlated with students’value of education, suggesting that the higher students perceived parents’expectations, the less students valued education. In other words, if studentsbelieved their parents held high educational expectations, the less they valuededucation. This was also an interesting finding since there was a positivecorrelation with students’ educational expectations and perception of parents’educational expectations. It may be established that students do not valueeducation by how far their parents’ think they will go; however, students’expectations and parents’ expectations are indicative of each other.Expectations and aspirations have been indicative of actual attainment not valueof education (Wigfield and Eccles 2000), although value of education wasimportant in determining students’ expectation for education. Future researchshould establish correlations between students’ value of education and educa-tional expectations. Perception of neighborhood quality was still significantlycorrelated with students’ value of education. Lastly, grade level was negativelycorrelated with students’ value of education, suggesting that as students’ gradelevel goes up, their value of education decreases. This finding may be ex-plained by the fact that the sample consisted mainly of upper classmen; juniorsand seniors who tend to be ready to finish high school and move on to thenext chapter of their lives.

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Limitations

Although this study found fascinating perspectives on expectations and perceptions ofAfrican American students, there are some limitations. First, teachers and parents ofparticipants were not interviewed or surveyed in this study; therefore, we didnot have their perceptions on the participants’ academic abilities. Second, thisstudy is limited to one demographic group and may not be generalizable tostudents of other races and ethnicities. Also, this study may not be generaliz-able to adolescent African American males and females whom reside in neigh-borhoods with higher or lower socioeconomic statuses. The findings will alsobe limited in terms of a suburban residential setting, unable to be generalizableto urban settings.

Also, the demographics of the school district being majority AfricanAmerican may have merit to the perceptions of high educational attainment.African American students who attend a predominately White school districtmay have different perceptions and experiences. Lastly, the study was unable toreceive participants who could be considered low achievers. Aspects such asschool connectedness and teacher expectations may conclude different perspec-tives from low-achieving students. Suggestions for future research would be tointerview students who have dropped out of high school recently or studentswho have reinstated during the school year to complete their high schooldegree. It also may be important to interview teachers and parents to uncoverif students’ perceptions of educational expectations align with their teachers’and parents’ actual expectations.

Implications

Since gender was not a significant factor in terms of educational expectations, for thefirst three hypotheses we failed to reject the null, meaning males did not hold lowereducational expectations than females nor did they perceive that their parents andteachers would hold lower educational expectations for them. However, in the fourthhypothesis we found a relationship between students’ perception of neighborhoodquality and value of education. The lack of statistically significant gender differencesin the educational expectations among African American adolescents may be warrantedby several factors.

First, unlike similar studies, this study was located in a suburban neighborhood,which typically has higher income neighborhoods and more resources than inner cityneighborhoods. Since most students were involved in extra-curricular activities, whichwas significant with educational expectations and value of education, this suburbanneighborhood had social organization, which is an important factor when overcomingcommunity violence and school disidentification. Further research should examinethese same variables in a suburban setting to find out whether gender differences arenot present. Moreover, with the population declining in inner cities and lack of rolemodels residing in urban neighborhoods, as well as the continuous migration of peopleand businesses into the suburbs, there are more role models for adolescents and moreadult structured activities or more social organization in suburban neighborhoods.

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Extra-curricular activities and socioeconomic status were also important factorsand can be indicators of the suburban neighborhood, which also contributed tothe lack of statistical gender differences.

Another important factor which could be examined more closely was therelationship between father’s level of education and students’ value of educationcompared to mother’s level of education and students’ educational expectations.How far students wanted to go academically was established by mother’s levelof education, whereas how much students’ valued education or in other wordshow much students thought school was important was revealed by their father’slevel of education. This shows the importance of dual-parent homes and how afather and mother can influence or motivate students’ academic success.Although many African American families are single-parent homes, in thisstudy level of education of the mother was highly positively correlated withstudents’ educational expectations, which means that students expected topursue more education than their mothers’s level of education. For this cohorton average, mother’s and father’s level of education was about equivalent to ahigh school degree. Considering students’ aspirations for completion of someform of college, which was higher than their parents’ level of education,students still expected to attain more education than their parents, which isindicative of how motivated these students were to better themselves. However,for this study, we did not inquire about the marital status of parents, but furtherresearch should continue to investigate parents’ level of education, maritalstatus, and educational expectations of the child.

Perception of parents’ educational expectations and perception of teachers’ educa-tional expectations were also telling factors for students’ academic expectations andaspirations. Perception of parents’ educational expectations was correlated with stu-dents’ value of education, whereas perception of teachers’ educational expectations wascorrelated with students’ educational expectations. However, since perception ofteachers’ expectations was positively correlated with students’ expectations, teachers’expectations may be more indicative of how far students will actually go in education.The results from this study show that the teacher-student relationship is extremelyimportant when looking at students’ educational expectations and aspirations. Students’expectations were positively associated with perceptions of how far students thoughttheir teachers think they will go. This is important since teachers are the ones whosupply students with the tools and knowledge for success to high school completion aswell as college.

This study also shows the importance of both parents’ and teachers’ influence onstudents’ value of education and educational expectations, which were indicative ofacademic attainment. Parents and teachers should continue to work in tandem to ensureboth male and female students have the support, skills, and social capital they need tocomplete high school and enter and complete college. Parents and teachers alonecannot fully provide the tools of success for social mobility and instill the value ofdominant cultural capital for African American students. The adage stating that Bittakes a village to raise a child^ has validity because these contributing factors:neighborhoods, parents, teachers, socioeconomic status, parent’s level of educa-tion, and extra-curricular activities, all play a role in students’ academic aspi-rations and expectations.

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Conclusion

This paper makes two important contributions to the field of African Americaneducational achievement. First, this study contributes to the gap in the literatureregarding suburban African Americans youth’s experiences. This paper is one of thefew studies that focus on suburban African American educational expectations at apredominately African American school with low, middle, and high socioeconomicstatuses. Second, we continue to build on previous research for inner city AfricanAmerican youth by exploring two educational dimensions that may contribute to theeducational achievement gap among African American males and females: (1) educa-tional expectations and (2) value of an education. Our research demonstrates thateducational expectations and value of an education are greatly influenced by the localcontext where the students live and the opportunity and social structure that fosterpositive images of education.

Based on the findings in this research, we argue that the context in whichresearchers study educational expectations for African American youth is im-portant to accurately understand the challenges and opportunities that face theurban and suburban youth. For example, our research showed that suburbanAfrican American males and females did not differ as hypothesized. Thissuggests that differences in educational expectations do not solely rely onself-expectations but on other contributing factors, such as the expectations ofparents and teachers, or mother’s level of education. Although gender was notsignificant for students’ expectations for self, the significant results for parents’and teachers’ expectations speak volumes to the external effects from good andfunctioning neighborhoods or community social organizations.

Previous studies focused on African American youth who lived in the inner cities.These youths typically lived in neighborhoods where the schools lacked the resourcesfor extra-curricular activities. Often, inner-city school districts lack funding to ensurethat teachers receive proper cultural sensitivity training, which can be utilized todevelop strategies for culturally responsive pedagogy in the classroom to make surethat teachers are not racially or gender biased. Neighborhoods played an important rolefor students’ value of education, allowing students to understand the importance ofschool, as well as promoting school connectedness. Since the participants in this studyattended a suburban public school, which is an essential part of the community, theschool’s resources are based on the social, human, cultural, and symbolic capital of thecommunity, which affords for more culturally responsive teachers and extra-curricularactivities for students within the school district.

The significant relationships among the perceptions of teachers’ and parents’ ex-pectations with students’ expectations serve as contributing factors and continue todemonstrate their importance in regards to students’ academic aspirations. Both father’sand mother’s level of education were also contributing factors for students’ value ofeducation as well as educational expectations, which also demonstrates the importanceof a family’s education in relation to the children. Although the average level ofeducation for the fathers and mothers was about a high school degree, students heldhigher educational achievement than their parents’ level of attainment.

African American students cannot solely rely upon parents for assistance in schoolor information regarding college. This study has shown that if the African American

152 J Afr Am St (2015) 19:135–156


community wants to see more youths, especially males, graduate from high school andcomplete college, there are several important aspects needed to ensure this academicattainment. Our study raises four important policy questions that address the educa-tional achievement gap among African American males and females.

First, students need social, cultural, and human capital resources within the schooland within the community that will be used to aggressively promote school connect-edness, which is fundamental in suburban and urban locations. Second, schools andneighborhoods must continue to provide these extra-curricular activities for youths.Extra-curricular activities are important factors for African American males and fe-males, which augment social and cultural processes that are conducive to long-termeducational planning and aspirations of human capital attainment beyond high school.Adult structured extra-curricular activities give students the toolkit they need whencommunicating with adults and authority figures and working in teams or groups. Also,the skills students gain in extra-curricular activities assist in their development ofleadership skills and time management skills. Third, school districts should requirethat teachers participate in cultural sensitivity training to understand the obstacles andchallenges that many African American students face as they navigate the educationalsystem. Culturally responsive teaching can also assist in school connectedness, which isimportant for students’ educational expectations. Finally, parents and teachers shouldcontinue to work together to develop a partnership to ensure that they are both holdinghigh educational expectations for African American females and males. This is impor-tant when addressing the gender disparity of academic attainment between AfricanAmerican males and females. African American males have the same educationalpotential as their female counterparts; it is the job of educators, parents, schooladministrators, and researchers to work in tandem to ensure African American males’high academic attainment.

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Documents

Educational Expectations Among African American Suburban Low to Moderate Income Public High School Students