Will it matter who I’m in school with? Differential influence of collective expectations on urban and rural US schools

ABSTRACT

Aside from a student’s personal desire to pursue higher education, a culture of high expectations in a school can have important consequences on the individual’s achievement. However, the school’s ‘collective expectation’ is affected by many contextual factors like urbanicity. Contributing to the research on urban-rural difference in education and nuancing the importance of having a culture of high expectations, this research examines how collective expectations affect student achievement differently in urban and rural schools. Using hierarchical linear models of a longitudinal sample of US high school students, the research shows how collective expectations have significant influence on short- and long-term outcomes of urban school students, but no significant ones on rural school students. It suggests the importance of shared expectations in urban schools, and how expectations – both individual and collective – can be leveraged to help students.

KEYWORDS:

• High expectations
• Wisconsin model
• urban-rural education
• peer effects
• status attainment

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jose Eos Trinidad

Jose Eos Trinidad is currently a PhD student in Comparative Human Development, and Committee on Education fellow at the University of Chicago. He was previously instructor at the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies and research coordinator at the Institute for the Science and Art of Learning and Teaching, Ateneo de Manila University. His research focuses on how social forces, structural factors, and personal non-cognitive skills influence educational and economic outcomes.