Why do Academically Capable Students in Rural Areas Choose

not to Apply to a Four Year School?

An Action Research Inquiry

Angelo Letizia

Summary

• This past year I taught dual enrollment government. As such, I was in daily contact with seniors. Dual enrollment classes are demanding and almost all of the students in all of my classes had high grade point averages and many extracurricular achievements. One would expect that almost all of these students would apply to four year universities. While many students did apply to four year schools, there were a good number of academically strong, high achieving students (as evidenced by a grade point average of a C or above) that did not. I began to talk other students that I had in the past who were also capable and high achieving students, and I noticed a good number of them were not applying to a four year school. So, this sparked my interest. I went back and calculated the numbers. Out of my 52 government students (who were all academically capable) 19 decided not to go to a four year school, which equates to 36%. I asked myself why did a third of academically capable students, at least in my rural school, not apply to a four year school? This became the focus of my study.

Preliminary Analysis

• The Praxis 1 exercise, which encouraged us to refine our themes, led me to use a sociological lens. After answering the questions, what I noticed was that the individual decision was anything but the individual's decision.

• The Praxis 2 exercise helped to elucidate these outside factors and begin to organize them into general themes. Drawing on the sociological context developed above, and my preliminary research, I began to flesh out vague themes to organize the research.

• The Craig section on the literature review may have been the most useful because it showed me how to use the literature to further my own study. Instead of just listing my sources, it helped me to really refine the vague themes I had been working with.

• Praxis 3 and 4 allowed me to continue to narrow down the research as it pertained to the questions we wrote. The questions helped to focus the research and keep it on track. So, throughout the process, I felt there was a constant narrowing and refinement of the themes which emerged.

• One of the most pertinent lessons I learned was of the use of the researcher field journal. This is a nice compliment to the questionnaire because the researcher field journal allows the researcher to actually immerse himself in the study, rather than be an outsider. I decided to incorporate a field journal to be a part of the study.

Major Themes1. Low Socioeconomic Status

How does a student’s financial situation affect their post secondary decisions? To what extent can a student’s socioeconomic background be viewed in a sociological context

2. Culture of the Locality

How does the culture of a student’s locality; as evidenced by local educational policies, family values and the local media, affect his/her decision to attend a four year school?

3. Factors on the Periphery How do factors on the periphery; such as regional opportunities,

state and federal policies, state and federal economic trends and national media, affect a student’s decision to attend a four year school?

Subthemes

1. Types of Financial Stress

Fear of loans, family obligations, dependant family members

2. Idea of Reality Creation

What reality do polices and the media create for a student and how does this created reality affect a student’s decision to attend a four year school?

3. Rural America in a Global Context

What other groups in global context have issues with access regarding education? How does the frame of reference for a rural student affect his/her decisions?

Research Questions

• To what degree do financial concerns inhibit academically capable students (GPA of C or above) from applying to a four year school; and do certain concerns outweigh others; such as not wanting to take out loans versus supporting a family?

• As a result of the county culture, as evidenced by county politics, educational attainment rates, family values and the proximity of a community college what perceptions do students form regarding higher education?

• To what degree do factors on the periphery of a student’s focus (i.e. regional, state and national theaters) affect a student’s decision to apply (or not to apply) to a four year school?

Methodology • Questionnaire using Likert scale. Questions will include: questions on family values

regarding education, impact of media, policies and other factors and how these events impacts the student’s decision not to apply to a four year school

• Researcher field notes; descriptive and reflexive. The researcher will run informal interviews with the targeted students, look for observable characteristics of poverty

• Talk with guidance counselors to obtain any other relevant student information• Obtain free and reduced lunch records• Perform policy discourse analysis on local, state and federal policies to determine if

any negative subject positions are created

• Look at local newspapers/television to see how many stories regarding education were run and if they promoted a negative image of education

• Obtain records of public and private universities tuition and create a bar graph to chart the increases since 1999

Challenges and Opportunities • One of the biggest challenges to this research project was obtaining the relevant data. I felt that I

had set a large task for myself, namely the creation of the funnel. This funnel theory is far reaching and has many aspects, so to collect research on those aspects was a challenge.

• Similarly, another challenge was what to include in the funnel. I feel may have overlooked certain factors. However, as Craig notes, the beauty of action research is that is open; if I actually performed this study, I would just have to be open to what may come about during the course of the study.

• One opportunity I had to clarify my research was to borrow aspects from my independent study. My independent study is a policy discourse analysis on federal policies dealing with nontraditional students. So, I thought that adding a policy discourse analysis (which is basically looking at policies to discern any connotations and/or messages or assumptions they may send or contain) on local educational policy (which is very heated in my community) to discover any negative images of education that may have negatively influenced students/parents perceptions would add a unique aspect to my study.

• The Newman book pointed me to another avenue of research; which was the media and its ability to create reality. So I incorporated a survey of the local and national media.

• One aspect of my research I would like to continue further inspection of the funnel. I would like to uncover more factors that can influence a student’s decision.

• Another area I would like to explore is if and how a person’s political party or that of their family influences their educational decision.

Bibliography • References • Alexander, K. (2000). The changing face of accountability: Monitoring and assessing institutional performance in higher education. The Journal of

Higher Education, 71, 411-431. • Allan, E. (2007). Policy discourses, gender, and education: Construction women’s status. New York: Routledge. • Bouck, E. (2004). How size and setting impact education in rural schools. The Rural Educator, 25, 38-42.• Brint, S., & Karabel, J (1989). The Diverted dream: Community colleges and the promise of educational opportunity in America, 1900-1985. New York:

Oxford University Press.• Brookings Institute. (2009). 1.4 percent Coverage for Education News is Not Enough. Washington DC: West, D., Whitehurst, G., & Dionne, E. J. • Craig, D. (2009). Action research essentials. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. • Davies, G. (2006). Setting a public agenda for higher education in the states: Lessons learned from the national collaborative for higher

education policy. The National Collaborative for Higher Education Policy. • Diaz, Vince. (2008). Relationships between district size socioeconomics expenditures and student achievement in Washington. The Rural Educator,

29, 30-40.• Farmer, T. A. (2009). Unique rural district politics. The Rural Educator. 30, 29-33.• Fowler, F. (2009). Policy studies for educational leaders: An introduction. (3rd ed). New York: Pearson. • Georgetown Center on Education and Workforce. (2011). The undereducated American. Washington DC: Carnevale. A., & Rose, S.• Huysman. E. (2008). Rural teacher satisfaction: An analysis of beliefs and attitudes of rural teacher’s job satisfaction. The Rural Educator, 29, 38-42.• Institute of Higher Education Policy. (2008). Promise Lost: College Qualified Students Who Don’t Enroll in College. Washington, DC: Hahn, R., & Price.• Legutko, R. (2008). A decades difference: Research revisited on family influence of rural high school student’s postsecondary decisions. The Rural

Educator, 29, 4-7. • Levin, J. (2010). Short-changed. The plight of U.S. universities in the age of economic instability, or around the bend: The University of California in the

present age. Australian Universities Review, 52, 56-63. • Marshall, C. (1999). Researching the margins: feminist critical policy analysis. Educational Policy, 13, 59-76.• Newman, D. (2008). Sociology: Exploring the architecture of everyday life. California: Sage Publishing. • National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. (2011). National postsecondary enrollment trends: Before, during after the great recession.

Indiana: Dadashova, A., Hossler, D., & Shapiro, D. • Policy Evaluation and Research Center. (2011). Optimizing talent: Closing educational and social mobility gaps worldwide. New Jersey. • The Chronicle Higher Education. (2011). Top Students From Rural America Shun Elite Colleges, Study Finds. Washington, DC: Schmidt of, P.

Angelo Letizia; EPPL student• I was admitted in the EPPL program in February of 2011. I am PhD student

in the Higher Education program. • I have taken EPPL 601 (policy), 602 (planning) and 635 (Organization and

Governance) prior to taking this class• My interests are postmodernism, critical theory, working students,

educational policy and the growing accountability movement in higher education.

• I am currently working on an independent study dealing with postmodernism, critical theory, and policies dealing with nontraditional students

• I am a full time Government/History teacher at Gloucester High School. I have been there for seven years.

• I am an adjunct lecturer of European History at ODU, I have been there for four years.

• I received by B.A. in secondary social studies from SUNY Cortland and my M.A. in history from ODU

• My email is ajletizia@hotmail.com