Transcript Addressing Diversity in Rural Education

Educational and Occupational
Aspiration Alignment Among Rural
High School Youth
Bryan C. Hutchins, Judith L. Meece, Soo-yong Byun,
Belinda Locke, Laura A. Shaffer,
Wakako Sogo, and Paul E. Wilson
1
Introduction
High school is an important period in which students must make a number of
decisions that will impact their transition into adulthood. Students who leave
high school with more focused career interests, realistic evaluations of their own
interests and aptitudes, and who have taken part in activities to strengthen their
career knowledge are more likely to succeed in meeting their postsecondary
educational and career goals (Gray, 2009). Rural youth often face challenges in
meeting such milestones due to a variety of contextual factors unique to rural
communities. For example, rural youth typically face higher rates of poverty,
restricted curriculum offerings, fewer opportunities to come into contact with
adults in professional and technical careers, and less availability of career
counseling and career exploration opportunities in both the school and
community, to name a few (Crockett, Shanahan, & Jackson-Newsom, 2000;
Morrissette, 2000; Save the Children, 2002). Each of these factors can negatively
impact career knowledge, which could contribute to rural youth having
unrealistic expectations about their futures. Few studies to date have focused on
the educational and occupational aspirations of rural youth, particularly the
degree of congruence between rural youth’s future educational and occupational
aspirations.
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Theoretical Perspective
To better understand the ambitions of today’s youth, Schneider and Stevenson (1999)
introduced into the literature the concept of aligned ambitions. Youth who express
educational aspirations that are appropriate given their intended career paths are
considered to have aligned ambitions. Those youth who over or underestimate the level of
education needed for their intended career paths are considered to have misaligned
ambitions. Schneider and Stevenson argue that greater attention should be placed on the
relationship between educational and occupational aspirations, particularly the level of
alignment that youth have between these aspirations, instead of considering them
separately. Using data from a nationally representative sample, Schneider and Stevenson
found that 43.7% of adolescents overestimated the level of education needed to meet their
career goals (over aligned), while 16.1% underestimated the level of education needed to
meet their career goals (under aligned). Only 40.2% of these youth had aligned educational
and occupational aspirations.
The strength of the aligned ambition approach to understanding the relationship between
educational and occupational aspirations is that students’ self-reported aspirations are
measured against independent criteria (i.e., level of education needed for a particular job).
In addition, all students are capable of having aligned ambitions regardless of the type of
occupation or level of education they desire. Finally, this approach views educational and
occupational aspirations as related rather than independent. For these reasons, the aligned
ambition perspective was used in the current study.
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Purpose and Goals of Study
The current study follows in the footsteps of Schneider and Stevenson (1999) by focusing
specifically on how far students say they want to go in school and how this relates to the
types of careers they hope to achieve. From this perspective, the focus is on whether
students have realistic aspirations based on the correspondence between educational and
occupational aspirations, regardless of how high or low these aspirations may be. The
current study seeks to extend the work of Schneider and Stevenson by exploring the issue
of alignment using data collected from a recent national sample of rural high school youth.
To that end, the current study will explore the level of alignment that rural youth have
between their educational and occupational aspirations. This study uniquely contributes to
the literature in three ways. First, few studies to date have considered the educational and
occupational aspirations or rural youth in general. Those studies that have addressed the
aspirations of rural youth are based largely on information collected over 20 years ago (e.g.,
Cobb, 1989; Apostal & Bilden, 1991; Haller & Virkler, 1993) that may no longer accurately
reflect current conditions in rural America. Second, this study is among the first to use the
aligned ambition paradigm to study rural youth. This approach is unique in that it will
further our understanding of aspirations of rural youth by providing an index of how
realistic these aspirations are based on independent career requirement criteria. Finally, this
study replicates and extends the work of Schneider and Stevenson by exploring several
individual, family, and school level factors that may influence ambition alignment.
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Methods
This study is part of a broader national investigation to examine preparation for
the transition to adulthood in rural high schools across the United States. Data
were collected during the 2007-2008 academic year. Youth in grades 9 – 12 were
recruited from 73 randomly selected rural and small town schools.
Participants
This study included 3020 (55.4% girls, 44.6% boys) in grades 11 and 12. The
largest self-identified ethnic and racial groups included Whites (72.1%), Hispanics
or Latinos (9.5%), African Americans (6.4%), and Native Americans (3.4%). In
addition, 8.5% of students identified themselves as multi-racial.
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Measures
Educational aspirations. Students were asked to indicate how far in school they would most
like to go. Possible answers ranged from “less than high school graduation” to “Ph.D., M.D.,
or equivalent.” Students who reported “I don’t know” were excluded from analysis.
Occupational aspirations. Students were asked to indicate if they planned to work at age 30.
If so, they were asked to write the job or career they would most like to have at age 30.
Open ended responses were coded into occupational categories and then coded by
minimum level of education needed to obtain the reported occupation (coding procedures
discussed below).
Student achievement. To assess student achievement, teachers where asked to report on
each student’s grades for the previous year on an eight-point scale ranging from “Mostly
A’s” to “Below D’s.”
Positive school valuing and academic self-concept. Students were asked a series of
questions to assess their sense of value for education in the present and future as well as
their perceptions of their academic competence in multiple school subjects. The items were
adapted from other measures such as scales created by Voelkl (1999), Lapan et al., (2001)
and Jodl et al., (2001). Cronbach’s alpha for positive school valuing was .85 and academic
self-concept was .73.
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Measures (cont.)
Parent involvement. Parent involvement was assessed with one five point item: “During the
past year how often have you had discussions with your parents/guardians about careers
and work?”
Parents’ level of education. Students were asked to report the highest level of education
that both parents/guardians received. Choices ranged from “Did not finish high school” to
“Completed a Ph.D., M.D., or other advanced professional degree.” Students could also
report “Don’t know.” For analysis purposes, the parent/guardian with the highest level of
education was used in the regression model.
Family economic hardship. Students were asked to report on their family’s economic
hardship using adapted items from multiple sources (i.e., Conger et al., 1999; Elder et al.,
1995; Wadsworth & Compas, 2002). The scale measured the constraints felt by the student
relating to difficulty over paying bills and struggles with having enough money to buy items
for the family. Cronbach’s alpha for this factor was .88.
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Data Coding Procedures
In order to create ambition alignment groups all open-ended occupational aspiration questions
were coded into major occupational groupings used by many governmental agencies (Stevens &
Cho, 1985). These coded occupational responses were further coded by minimum level of
education needed for entry into the intended occupation using a classification system similar to
those used in previous studies of rural youth (see Haller & Virkler, 1993). Occupations were
coded into four categories: less than high school, high school or some college, college, or
advanced degree required.
The original educational aspiration responses were collapsed into the same four categories so
that educational aspirations could be compared to occupational aspirations. Those students who
had educational aspirations that met the minimum requirement for their occupational
aspirations were classified as having aligned ambitions. Students who aspired to more education
than would be needed for their occupational aspirations were classified as having over-aligned
ambitions. Students who had educational aspirations that were below the minimum needed for
their occupational aspirations were classified as having under-aligned ambitions.
For the regression analysis, students with slightly over aligned ambitions (e.g., a student aspiring
to complete a 4-year degree when only a two year degree is needed) were recoded into the
aligned group to focus on those with extreme over and under alignment (see Table 1).
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Results
Overall, 1200 (39.7%) rural students had educational and occupational ambitions that were
aligned, whereas 262 (8.7%) had educational aspirations that would be insufficient to meet their
occupational aspirations. The majority of students 1558 (51.6%) had educational aspirations
that were greater than the minimum level needed for their occupational aspirations.
See Figure 1.
A multinomial logistic regression was used to explore the relationship between student, family,
and school level variables and ambition alignment (Table 2). The first column shows the
relationship between the predictors on being in the under-aligned vs. aligned group. The second
column shows the relationship between the predictors on being in the over-aligned vs. aligned
group. Girls and Native Americans were more likely to be in the under-aligned vs. aligned group.
In addition, students with lower grades and lower academic self-concept were more likely to be
in the under-aligned vs. aligned group. Finally, students of parents with lower levels of education
and those who talked less often with parents about their futures were more likely to be in the
under-aligned group.
Native American students were more likely to be in the over-aligned vs. aligned group. In
addition, students of parents with higher levels of education and students with greater
perceived family hardship were more likely to be in the over-aligned vs. aligned group. No other
significant differences were found.
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Figure 1. Ambition Alignment Groups
60
51.6%
50
39.7%
40
30
20
8.7%
10
0
Under Aligned:
Underestimation of
Education Needed
Aligned
Over Aligned:
Overestimation of
Education Needed
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Table 1. Comparison of Educational and Occupational Aspirations
Minimum Level of Education Needed for Occupational Aspirations
Educational
Aspirations
Less than
HS
HS or Some
College
College
Graduate/
Professional
Less than HS
2 (0.1%)a
1 (0%)b
2 (0.1%) b
0 (0%) b
HS or Some
College
159 (5.3%) c
271 (9.0%) a
155 (5.1%) b
16 (0.5%) b
College
78 (2.6%) d
397 (13.1%) c
551 (18.2%) a
88 (2.9%) b
Graduate/
Professional
42 (1.4%) d
235 (7.8%) d
647 (21.4%) c
376 (12.5%) a
Note. Percentages in parentheses. The following subscripts denote ambition alignment
categories:
a
Aligned ambitions.
b
Under-aligned ambitions.
c
Slightly over-aligned ambitions.
d
Over-aligned ambitions.
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Table 2. Multinomial Logistic Regression on Ambition Alignment Status
Predictor Variables
Constant
Under vs. Aligned Ambitions
Odds-Ratio
SE
B
0.20
-2.62
Over vs. Aligned Ambitions
Odds-Ratio
SE
B
0.17
-2.06
Student Characteristics
Gender (female)
Ethnicity
White (reference)
African American
Hispanic/Latino
Native American
Multi-racial
Achievement
Positive School Valuing
Academic Self-Concept
Discussions with Parents About
Future
0.77
0.15***
2.16
0.21
0.13
1.23
0.40
0.17
0.69
-0.07
-0.21
0.04
-0.21
0.26
0.22
0.32*
0.26
0.08**
0.08
0.08**
1.48
1.18
2.00
0.94
0.81
0.96
0.80
0.04
-0.07
0.80
0.22
-0.07
-0.06
0.07
0.25
0.23
0.27**
0.20
0.08
0.07
0.08
1.00
0.93
2.23
1.24
0.94
1.06
1.07
-0.16
0.07*
0.85
0.05
0.07
1.05
-0.18
0.06
0.09*
0.07
0.83
1.06
0.21
0.12
0.06**
0.06*
1.23
1.13
-0.19
0.08
0.18
0.08
0.83
1.09
-0.11
0.12
0.15
0.07
0.90
1.12
Parent Characteristics
Parents' Level of Education
Family Economic Hardship
School Characteristics
Rural vs. Small Town (reference)
Percent Free/Reduced Lunch
Model Chi-square
-2logL
Pseudo R-square
N
*** p < .001, ** p < .01, * p < .05
129.83***
3673.76
0.06
2834
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Discussion
The results of this study provide a number of important findings. First, these data suggest
that the students in this sample are slightly more over-aligned than the sample in the
Schneider and Stevenson (1999) study. This may reflect true differences between rural
youth and youth in more urban and suburban populations. However, these findings (based
on a more recent sample) may reflect the fact that youth today are increasingly
experiencing pressure to continue their post-secondary education regardless of whether
this push is linked with their own career aspirations (Rosenbaum, 2004). Also, this rise in
over-alignment may reflect the pressure that youth face due to a perceived increase in the
level of education needed to be competitive in the current job market (Goyette, 2008).
While these results suggest that rural youth are more over-aligned, but less under-aligned
compared to Schneider and Stevenson’s findings, this study also highlights the fact that the
majority of rural students (approximately 80%) have aligned or slightly over-aligned
ambitions. Only about 20% of rural students in this study have problematic misalignment.
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By focusing on students with the greatest level of ambition misalignment, this study found
a number of individual and family level variables related to alignment status. While
parents’ level of education was related to both over and under-alignment, underalignment appears to be related to academic performance and academic self-concept,
while over-alignment is related more to family economic hardship. In addition, gender is
related to under-alignment, while Native American students are more likely to be both
over and under-aligned.
This study provides new information about the ambitions of rural youth; however, further
research is needed using the aligned ambition paradigm to determine if differences
between rural and non-rural youth exist. Such an investigation can also further clarify if the
individual and family level differences found in this study are specific to the rural context
(e.g., the over-representation of girls in the under-alignment group) or apply to youth in
other contexts as well.
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Funding Source
This poster is based on research conducted by National Research
Center on Rural Education Support (NRCRES) at the University of
North Carolina.
This work was supported by grant #R305A04056 from the Institute
of Education Sciences.
The authors are responsible the contents of this poster. No
statement in this poster should be construed as an official position
of the granting agency.