| Amy Langenkamp
University of Texas, Austin
The effect of school transitions on math/science academic achievement: Curriculum, social relationships, and school context
FINAL REPORT:
As students' progress through the educational system, they all must negotiate the transition of changing schools. Moving between these institutions is an important turning point-providing opportunities or exacerbating students' vulnerabilities. The ability for students to integrate academically and socially into a new school depends partly on individual attributes such as academic preparation and partly on the circumstances of the transition. The transition may occur with a cohort of middle school classmates entering high school together, or a student transfer to a new school alone.
Most research on school transitions neglects one important aspect; that of the move between schools as an intersection of two institutions in the adolescent's life. Because these transitions occur between two institutional contexts, various dimensions of schools also affect students' transitions. The way schools organize students, both formally and informally, impacts individual opportunities within schools in fundamental ways. Formally, schools shape students' curricular opportunity through course placement and academic rigor. Informally, schools shape social relationships via course placement and organizational structure. These dimensions of schools comprise the structure of schooling, influence academic success and failure, and shift in key ways when a student changes schools. For example, the math/science course placement of a student in their new school affects their academic trajectory and impacts curricular opportunity. Course placement also dictates students' social opportunities and access to students placed in the same class. Therefore, curricular structure and the formation of social relationships are interrelated, particularly for students entering a new school.
I follow students as they change between two separate institutional contexts-either transitioning to high school or transferring from one high school to another. Using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) and its education components, the Adolescent Health and Academic Achievement (AHAA) study, I investigate the effect of school change on student achievement. I focus on math/science achievement as a crucial indicator of academic success and higher academic attainment while considering how the structure of schooling affects students' academic and social opportunities. In the transition to high school, relationships between students' transitioning together impact their first year of high school achievement. Specifically, socio-emotional ties and status-driven ties are associated with achievement, but their impact depends on the amount of disruption experienced in the transition. In addition, findings indicate the social context of the receiving school also impacts incoming students' academic trajectory and that transferring schools during high school lowers achievement.
Schools are a centerpiece for adolescents' academic and social growth. Academic and social integration into school is also associated with an abundance of positive life outcomes. The overarching goal of this study is to advance empirical knowledge about how students move through the school system during high school. Adolescence is a critical transition period; it is a time when people are vulnerable to academic and social disengagement from school. This dissertation contributes to research in the field of education in three ways: by disentangling distinct types of transitions during adolescence, exploring social relationships as a crucial catalyst of continuity or discontinuity in school transitions, and incorporating dimensions of the structure of schooling. Capturing the point of school change will help further understanding of how students lose and rebuild social capital within schools. My study helps disentangle complex processes of individual agency and institutional constraints which are fundamental to shaping opportunity to learn, development of social relationships, and student academic success in the institution of education.
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