The concept of school engagement has attracted increasing attention as representing a possible antidote to declining academic motivation and achievement. Engagement is presumed to be malleable, responsive to contextual features, and amenable to environmental change. Researchers describe behavioral, emotional, and cognitive engagement and recommend studying engagement as a multifaceted construct. This article reviews definitions, measures, precursors, and outcomes of engagement; discusses limitations in the existing research; and suggests improvements. The authors conclude that, although much has been learned, the potential contribution of the concept of school engagement to research on student experience has yet to be realized. They call for richer characterizations of how students behave, feel, and think—research that could aid in the development of finely tuned interventions

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/3516061.pdf

School Engagement: Potential of the Concept, State of the Evidence

Schooling in Capitalist America.

Focusing on parental networks—a central dimension of social capital—this article uses ethnographic data to examine social-class differences in the relations between families and schools. We detail the characteristics of networks across different classes and then explore the ways that networks come into play when parents are confronted by problematic school situations. The middle-class parents in our study tended to react collectively, in contrast to working-class and poor parents. The middle-class parents were also uniquely able to draw on contacts with professionals to mobilize the information, expertise, or authority needed to contest the judgments of school officials. We did not find substantial race differences. We affirm the importance of a resource-centered conception of social capital that grants the issue of inequality a predominant place.

From Social Ties to Social Capital: Class Differences in the Relations Between Schools and Parent Networks

This article builds on a sociological account of working-class minority youth development and differential access to social capital—defined in terms of key resources and support provided by institutional agents (Stanton-Salazar, 1997, 2001, 2004). The article elaborates on the concept of institutional agents—specifically, high-status, non-kin, agents who occupy relatively high positions in the multiple dimensional stratification system, and who are well positioned to provide key forms of social and institutional support. The article focuses on the kinds of institutional support such agents are able to provide, and on the multiple and simultaneous [help-giving] roles assumed by those who provide this support. Drawing from empowerment theory in critical social work, the article provides a discussion about manifesting one’s capacity as an institutional agent in ways that not only entails providing key resources, but also that enables the authentic empowerment of the student or young person. Influenced by Fre...

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ricardo_Stanton-Salazar/publication/237631402_A_Social_Capital_Framework_for_the_Study_of_Institutional_Agents_and_Their_Role_in_the_Empowerment_of_Low-Status_Students_and_Youth/links/558336f108ae8bf4ba6f8c14.pdf?disableCoverPage=true

A Social Capital Framework for the Study of Institutional Agents and Their Role in the Empowerment of Low-Status Students and Youth

This paper argues that education should become more evidence-based. The distinction is made between using existing research and establishing high-quality educational research. The need for high-quality systematic reviews and appraisals of educational research is clear. Evidence-based education is not a panacea, but is a set of principles and practices for enhancing educational policy and practice.

What is Evidence-based Education?

How can we bolster the academic success of low achieving students and provide a more egalitarian classroom setting? This book describes the process of 'untracking', an educational reform effort that has prepared students from low income, linguistic, and ethnic minority backgrounds for college. Untracking offers all students the same academically-demanding curriculum while varying the amount of institutional support they receive. Helpful institutional 'scaffolds' teach the hidden curriculum of the school, allowing students to develop an academic identity and build bridges between high school and college. There have been many plans and attempts to reform schools, but few detailed investigations of such efforts. This book is a highly readable account of a successful school reform effort. It provides systematic research results concerning the educational and social consequences of untracking previously low achieving students.

Constructing School Success: The Consequences of Untracking Low Achieving Students

Recognizing the inequities caused by compensatory education, tracking, and ability grouping, educators are exploring alternative practices. In San Diego, one effort to break down the barriers erected by school sorting practices is to untrack students. Untracking places previously low-achieving students (who are primarily from low-income and ethnic or language minority backgrounds) in the same college-preparatory academic program as high- achieving students (who are primarily from middle- or upper-middle-income and Anglo backgrounds). The Achievement Via Individual Determination (AVID) untracking program shifts education policy for underachieving students away from a simplified or reduced curriculum toward a rigorous curriculum with increased support for low-achieving students. The San Diego untracking program has been successful in preparing its students for college: 48% of the 248 students who completed three years of AVID enrolled in four-year colleges, 40% enrolled in two year colleges, and the remaining 12% are working, traveling, or doing voluntary work. Parents' income and education are not responsible for the impressive college enrollment figures of these untracked students. Students from the lowest income strata enroll in four-year colleges in equal or higher proportion to students who come from higher income strata. Students whose parents have less than a college education enroll in four year colleges more than students whose parents do have a college education. In our search for the reasons behind AVID's success, we found that AVI D coordinators explicitly teach aspects of the implicit culture of the classroom and the hidden curriculum of the school. They also mediate the relationship between families, high schools, and colleges. In Bourdieu's terms, AVID gives low-income students some of the social and cultural capital at school that more economically advantaged parents give to their children at home.

/pdf/tracking-untracking-the-consequences-of-placing-low-track-yfdms9xjsw.pdf

Angela Lintz

Papers

Constructing School Success: The Consequences of Untracking Low Achieving Students

Tracking Untracking: The Consequences of Placing Low Track Students in High Track Classes

Constructing School Success: References

Parents' Contributions to Untracked Students' Careers

Constructing School Success: Organizational Processes Influencing Untracking