‘It’s like giving us a car, only without the wheels’: a critical policy analysis of an early college programme

Abstract

The purpose of this qualitative inquiry was to examine the perceptions and experiences of Latina students, who were underperforming in an early college high school (ECHS), regarding their achievement and experiences. Additionally, the school’s institutional documents were used to critically assess the viability of the ECHS as an equity-oriented, social justice policy intervention to increase educational opportunity. Conceptual frameworks of Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum frame the analyses, which reveal a myopic focus on achievement to increase educational opportunity is naïve. While the ECHS studied may have been designed with good intentions, as a policy intervention it was not broadly effective. A perspective existed that opportunities for advanced achievement were accessible to all students in the programme. Unfortunately, this perspective naively ignored the constraints students faced in their lives. These constraints were often unavoidable and tended to undermine students’ progress towards high achievement and increased the likelihood, students would make choices that negatively impacted their achievement. Findings reveal significant gaps between policy-makers’ assumptions regarding how to expand educational opportunity and what students need to achieve. Equity-oriented, social justice policy interventions, like the ECHS, do little in terms of increasing achievement if they ignore the holistic lives of students.

Notes

1. ‘At-risk’ students are: under 21 years old and failed in at least one grade level; show low performance and low assessment; are non-native English speakers; wards of the State; pregnant or a parent; homeless; or hospitalized (Texas Education Code 29.081).

2. The terms Latina/o and Hispanic are used interchangeably throughout this manuscript. The terms refer to someone who is from Latin America or of Latin American descent who is currently living in the US. Usage of the terms throughout the paper reflects how they are referenced in the literature. Though the research that informs most of this work focuses on students of Mexican descent, the argument is germane to almost all Latina/o groups. The umbrella term we use here to refer to all subgroups is ‘Latina/o’ because it is a term that has most currency in the community, despite the fact that ‘Hispanic’ is the preferred term for governments and institutions. It should also be known that academic performance among Latina/o ethnic groups varies depending on education, geographic location and social mobility.

3. Pseudonyms have been used in place of all given names of schools, places and participants.

4. Advanced Placement and Dual Credit are in-school intervention programmes at the high school level designed to expose students to advanced and college-level coursework. Started in the 1960s, these programmes remain commonplace in traditional high schools.

5. TRIO is a group of federal grant programmes (originally there were three programmes) under the Higher Education Act of 1965. TRIO is not an acronym.

6. The 13 partners are: the Center for Native Education, the City University of New York, the Foundation for California Community Colleges, the Georgia Department of Education/University System of Georgia, the KnowledgeWorks Foundation, the Middle College National Consortium, the National Council of La Raza, the North Carolina New Schools Project, the Portland Community College’s Gateway to College, SECME, Inc., Communities Foundation of Texas (Texas High School Project), the Utah Partnership Foundation, and the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation.

7. While we use the term ‘deformed choice’ here, we feel it does not accurately reflect the resultant and often absolute lack of choice some unfreedoms produce. Perhaps a better term may be a ‘negotiated choice’ or a ‘competing choice’.

8. Underperformance was defined by failing three or more classes based on six-week semester grades.

9. Subsidized or free-and-reduced lunch classification, a proxy for low income, was indicative of the student population of the school.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Leslie Ann Locke

Leslie Ann Locke is an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and School Counseling at The University of Southern Mississippi, 118 College Drive, Hattiesburg, MS 39406, USA. Email: [email protected]. Her research interests include leadership for social justice and equity, social justice education policy, early college high schools and the education of students from traditionally marginalized groups.

Kathryn Bell McKenzie

Kathryn Bell McKenzie is a professor of Advanced Studies and the director of the Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership program at California State University, Stanislaus, Stanislaus, CA, USA. Email: [email protected]. Her research interests include school improvement, instructional leadership, equity and excellence in education, and qualitative methodologies.