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theses

Research strongly points to the importance of adolescents’ aspirations to their future occupational and educational attainment. As such, factors that influence the development and maintenance of high aspirations become important to identify. This is especially true regarding low income and minority students, who are most at risk for school failure, as reflected in the achievement gap reported in US schools. Given the importance of the ecological context to student development, and the formative role the school setting plays in adolescent life, the relationship of perceived school climate to student aspirations was examined. This study uses a sample comprised of 8,866 students from eight New Jersey public schools which had participated in the Developing Safe and Civil Schools school climate project, and which reflect a range of SES settings and proportion of minority students. The study examined different average levels of aspirations by SES and ethnic group, as well as differential impact of climate on aspirations. Results of a hierarchical linear regression indicate that school climate is important to the aspirations of all students, and that the strength of this relationship varies by the presence or absence of risk factors. School climate is most important to the aspirations of students with one risk factor (either minority or low SES). It is less strongly, though still significantly, related to the aspirations of students with two risk factors (minority and low SES), and then less strongly, though still significantly, related to the aspirations of students with no risk factors to school success. Also, while analysis of average levels of aspirations by group indicates that low SES and minority students tend to have lower aspirations, once other factors, including perception of school climate, were accounted for, these differences largely disappeared. Given the important results of this study, interventions aimed at helping all students, but especially those at risk of school failure, develop and maintain high aspirations through the school climate should become a regular part of educational planning in order to most successfully facilitate long term, meaningful, student success, especially for students at risk for school failure. Additional research examining the relationships between risk factors, school climate, and student aspirations would be vital for furthering knowledge and directing meaningful interventions.

ETD_5938

doi:10.7282/T3VX0F0J

Psy.D.

Includes bibliographical references

by Tzivia Jofen

ETD doctoral

The author owns the copyright to this work.