Adolescence 12e laurence steinbergchapter 6 – schoolscopy

Adolescence 12e
Laurence Steinberg
Chapter 6 –
schools
Copyright © 2020 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved.
No reproduction or distribution without the prior written
consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
Chapter 6 –
schools
1
Chapter 6 Overview (1)
The Broader Context of U.S. Secondary Education
The Origins of Secondary Education
School Reform: Past and Present
What Should Schools Teach?
Education in the Inner Cities
The Social Organization of Schools
School Size and Class Size
Age Grouping and School Transitions
Tracking
Ethnic Composition

Alternatives to Public Schools
2
Chapter 6 Overview (2)
Classroom Climate
The Best Classroom Climate for Adolescents
Teacher Expectations and Student Performance
The Importance of Student Engagement
School Violence
Beyond High School
The College-Bound
The Non-College-Bound
Schools and Adolescent Development
Characteristics of Good Schools
The Effects of School on Adolescent Development
3
Secondary Education (1)
Secondary education: Middle schools, junior high schools, and
high schools

Almost all American adolescents are enrolled in school.
Enrollment varies in developing countries.
4
Secondary Education (2)
Figure 6.1: The proportion of male and female adolescents in
selected countries who are enrolled in secondary school.
Access the text alternative for these images.
Figure 1
5
The broader context of U.s. Secondary Education (1)
Virtually all adolescents 14 to 17 are enrolled in school.
In 1930, only half of this group were students.
In 1900, only 1 in 10 adolescents were students.

Adolescents spend more days in school each year.
Adolescents remain in school for more years than in previous
eras.
6
The broader context of U.s. Secondary Education (2)
Figure 6.2: The proportion of the 14- to 17-year-old population
enrolled in school increased dramatically between 1910 and
1940, continued to increase until 1970, and then leveled off.
Today, more than 95% of individuals this age are in school.
7
The Origins of Secondary Education (1)

The rise in secondary education in American was the result of
several historical and social trends that converged at the turn of
the twentieth century:
Industrialization
Urbanization
Immigration
8
The Origins of Secondary Education (2)
Before compulsory secondary education, high schools were for
the elite.
By 1920s, educators called for curricular reform to match
changes in social composition of schools.
Focus on intellectual training
New focus on preparing youth for life in modern society (roles
of work and citizenship)
Comprehensive high school: General education, college
preparation, and vocational education all housed under one roof
9

School Reform: Past and Present (1)
Many school reforms occurred over the years, such as focus on
math and science during the 1950s in response to the former
Soviet Union’s perceived superiority in those areas.
No Child Left Behind
The law mandates that all states ensure that all students,
regardless of economic circumstances, achieve academic
proficiency on standardized annual tests.
Schools that repeatedly fail face losing funding and closing.
Social promotion: Promoting students from one grade to the
next automatically, regardless of their school performance
10
Problems with No Child Left Behind:
Not enough resources
Teaching to the test—subjects and skills not on the test at risk
for being cut or ignored
Impossible to assess critical thinking through standardized tests
Critical thinking: Thinking that involves analyzing, evaluating,
and interpreting information, rather than simply memorizing it
No common set of standards—“Gaming the system” through low
standards
Reporting school-wide average scores without revealing the
huge gaps between low- and high-performing students

11
The Obama administration attempted to fix many of the
problems of No Child Left Behind.
Stressed the need to have high standards for all students
Stressed the need for a common set of standards across all 50
states
“Race to the Top” competition, which had little more impact on
high school student achievement than No Child Left Behind
Encouraged schools to develop better ways of evaluating
teachers, helping teachers to improve their classroom skills, and
replacing poor teachers with better ones
The Trump administration appointed a Secretary of Education
who is focused on giving parents more ability to choose their
child’s school.
Wants to force schools to improve to compete for students
Government-funded education vouchers for use at conventional,
charter, private (including religious) schools
Critics of this approach worry it will drain money from public
school districts and create wider gaps in quality between
schools for affluent children and schools for poor children.

13
What Should Schools Teach? (1)
Standards-based reform: Policies designed to improve
achievement by holding schools and students to a predetermined
set of standards measured by achievement tests
Common core: Proposed set of standards in language arts and
mathematics that all American schools would be expected to use
Difficult to establish the standards
Problems when a large proportion of high school seniors do not
pass standardized graduation examinations
Economic, social, and political costs of holding back large
numbers of students
14
What Should Schools Teach? (2)
Increasing numbers of parents began to look at other options:
Charter schools: Public schools that have been given the
autonomy to establish their own curricula and teaching practices
Home schooling

School vouchers: Government-subsidized vouchers that can be
used for private school tuition
15
Education in the Inner Cities
The education crisis is particularly urgent within inner-city
public schools.
10 percent of U.S. high schools produce 50 percent of dropouts.
One-third of Black and Latino students attend these schools.
Only one-sixth of students are proficient in science.
Concentration of poverty has produced a population of students
with problems few schools are equipped to handle.
Administrative bureaucracies impede reform.
Students report less of a sense of “belonging” to their schools.
Fewer inner-city job opportunities have left students with little
incentive to remain in school or put effort into academic
pursuits.
16
The Social Organization of Schools (1)

School Size and Class Size
Large schools have a more varied curriculum and more diverse
extracurricular activities.
Student achievement is higher in more intimate schools.
Schools within schools: Subdivisions of the student body within
large schools created to foster feelings of belongingness
Smaller school size encourages participation, thus developing
skills and abilities.
Smaller school students are more likely to hold leadership
positions, do things that make them feel confident and diligent.
Academically marginal students are outsiders in bigger schools.
More inequality of educational experiences exists in larger
schools.
17
The Social Organization of Schools (2)
Variations in Class Size
Research findings have been misinterpreted by politicians who
began emphasizing importance of small classes.
Adolescents learn as much in classes of 20 to 40 students.
Tutoring and highly individualized instruction is exception.
The Problem of Overcrowding
It interferes with the delivery of high-quality education.
Nearly 15 percent of secondary schools are overcrowded.
An additional 8 percent are severely overcrowded.
Attempts to reduce the adverse effects have had mixed results.

18
Age Grouping and School Transitions (1)
Early twentieth century
Most school districts separated students into an elementary
school (6 or 8 grades) and a secondary school (4 or 6 gr ades)
Junior high school: educational institution designed during the
early era of public secondary education, in which young
adolescents are schooled separately from older adolescents
Late twentieth century
Middle school: educational institution housing 7th- and 8th-
grade students along with adolescents who are 1 or 2 years
younger
More recent years
Return of a two-school model (usually K through 8 and 9
through 12)
19
The Transition into Secondary School
As children move into middle school or junior high, school

grades, school engagement, and academic motivatio n drop, but
scores on standardized achievement tests do not decline.
The drop in grades may reflect changes in student motivation
and grading practices, not in student knowledge.
The drop in academic motivation and achievement could be due
to school transition itself or to the nature of the differences
between elementary school and middle or junior high school.
20
How Secondary Schools Differ from Elementary Schools
Compared to elementary school teachers, middle school/junior
high teachers have the following characteristics:
They are less likely to trust their students, more likely to
emphasize discipline.
They are more likely to believe that students’ abilities are fixed.
They are less likely to feel confident about their teaching ability
There is a developmental mismatch between what adolescents
need and what they get from teachers.
Bureaucratic organization and anonymity of junior high schools
may have negative effect on teachers.
Cultural stereotypes may have negative influence on teachers.

21
Individual Differences in the Extent of Transitional Problems
Not all students experience the same degree of stress.
Students who have more academic and psychosocial problems
before making a school transition have more problems coping
with it.
Poor, inner-city adolescents may be particularly at risk for the
negative effects of school transitions.
Boys, ethnic minority students, and students from poor families
are more likely to become disengaged from school.
Parental support and involvement are associated with better
adjustment during school transitions.
Tracking (1)
Tracking: Practice of separating students into ability groups, so
that they take classes with peers at the same skill level
Schools that use tracking may be more exclusive or more
inclusive regarding the highest track, or they may be
“meritocratic.”
Pros and Cons of Tracking
Allows teachers to design class lessons that are more finely
tuned to students’ abilities
Account for mastery of certain basic skills
Remedial track students generally receive poorer quality
education, not just different education
Socialize only with peers from same track

May discriminate against poor and ethnic minorities
23
Tracking (2)
On the Wrong Track
Early track placements result in a difficult-to-change
educational trajectory.
Tracking in one class may lead to tracking in others due to
scheduling.
More advanced tracking has more challenging instruction, better
teaching, critical thinking classroom activities.
Net effect is an increase in preexisting academic differences.
Some exceptions exist, with lower tracks taught by exceptional
teachers.
24
Tracking (3)
The Effects of Tracking on Student Achievement
Studies of the effect of tracking have produced a complicated
answer with variety of shown effects.

Both implementation and “detracking” are controversial.
Teachers may sort based on ability without formal tracking; this
results in raised expectations and evaluations for high-ability
students and lowered expectations and evaluations for low -
ability students
25
Tracking (4)
Students at the Extremes
Gifted students: Students who are unusually talented in some
aspect of intellectual performance
Learning disability: Difficulty with academic tasks that cannot
be traced to an emotional problem or sensory dysfunction
Dyslexia: Impaired ability in reading or spelling
Dysgraphia: Impaired ability in handwriting
Dyscalculia: Impaired ability in arithmetic
Mainstreaming: The integration of adolescents who have
educational handicaps into regular classrooms
26

Tracking (5)
Students at the Extremes, continued
There are pros and cons of mainstreaming for both gifted
adolescents and students with special needs.
Big fish-little pond effect: The reason that individuals who
attend high school with high-achieving peers feel worse about
themselves than comparably successful individuals with lower -
achieving peers
Adolescents with a specific learning disability may benefit from
extra instruction in study skills, note-taking, and proofreading.
They may also need help with motivation and dealing with
social and emotional difficulties and coping with self-esteem
issues.
27
Tracking (6)
Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): A biologically
based psychological disorder characterized by impulsivity,
inattentiveness, and restlessness, often in school situations
In 50 to 70% of cases, ADHD persists into adolescence.
Three subtypes exist: predominantly inattentive, predominantly
hyperactive/impulsive, and combined.
ADHD is a biological disorder with a very strong genetic
component.
It is frequently treated with stimulant medication.
One concern is that medication is shared with nonafflicted
friends.

28
Ethnic Composition (1)
Landmark U.S. Supreme Court rulings legally ended segregation
of schools (Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka 1954;
1955).
Effects of Desegregation
Desegregation has little impact on achievement levels of either
minority or White adolescents.
Minority youngster’s self-esteem is higher when they attend
schools in which they are in the majority.
Students feel stronger attachment to schools that draw directly
from the local community and where more of their classmates
share an ethnic group.
Students feel more engaged, safer, less lonely, and less harassed
in relatively more diverse multiethnic schools than less
balanced schools.
Cross-ethnic friendships are more common among male than
female students, in part because males are more likely to be
involved in athletics.
29

Ethnic Composition (2)
Figure 6.3: Students who are part of a very small racial minority
in their school (few than 15% of the students) are less likely to
feel attached to school, which increases depression and
substance use.
30
Figure 4
Alternatives to Public Schools
To encourage better schools and competition among schools for
better students, some policy makers want parents to have more
choices of where to send their children.
Government-subsidized school vouchers allow parents to
“purchase” education at a school of one’s choosing—private or
public.
States may allow development of more independent charter
schools.
Private schools are not necessarily more effective than public
schools.
Homeschooled adolescents with weak religious ties are three
times more likely to be behind grade level, half as likely to do

extracurriculars.
Family background is more powerful influence than quality of
schools.
Social capital: The interpersonal resources available to an
adolescent or family
31
Classroom Climate (1)
Various aspects of the school climate have important effects on
youngsters’ learning and achievement:
How teachers interact with students
How class time is used
The standards and expectations teachers hold for students
All of these aspects are more important than school size, ethnic
composition, approach to ability group, or age group
combination.
32
The Best Classroom Climate for Adolescents

Responsive and demanding
Positive with supportive and demanding teachers
Moderate degree of structure
Cooperation, not competition, between students
Respectful and caring teachers
33
Figure 6.4: A recent study of Colombian students found that a
positive school climate contributes to, and results from,
students’ positive outlook on life, and that both increase
adolescents’ prosocial behavior.
34
Figure 4

School Climate and Bullying
Bullying is more likely in schools with unsupportive, harsh
teachers, disorderly climate, and little respect for students.
The role of school climate has raised legal questions about
schools’ legal responsibility for failing to take steps to prevent
bullying.
Experts recommend implementing evidence-based, anti-bullying
programs, mental health services referrals, training for
personnel, policies that make it easier to report bullying, and
prompt investigations of bullying.
35
Teacher Expectations and Student Performance (1)
Strong correlation exists between teacher expectations and
student performance because teachers’ expectations:
Are often accurate reflections of their students’ abilities (which
explains approximately 80% the relation)
Create self-fulfilling prophecies (which explains approximately
20% the relation)
Might be stronger for academically weaker students

Teachers may do the following:
Consciously and unconsciously base their expectations in part
on students’ ethnic and socioeconomic background
Call on affluent or White students more
Have lower expectations and hold stereotypes about minorities
Give undeserved positive feedback to minority students who
have done poor work
Make it difficult for minority students to attain academic
accomplishment that permits upwards mobility
High achievement expectations from parents helps protect
students from the impact of low teacher expectations.
Figure 6.5: When asked to evaluate a second instance of student
misbehavior, teachers were more likely to be troubled by it and
to recommend harsh discipline when they were led to believe
that the student was Black.

Figure 5
38
The Importance of Student Engagement (1)
Students and teachers influence each other.
Effective teachers can engage and excite their students, and
engaged and excited students can motivate their teachers to be
more effective.
Student engagement: The extent to which students are
psychologically committed to learning and mastering the
material rather than simply completing the assigned work
Student disengagement comes in different forms, including
behaviorally, emotionally, and cognitively.
Table 6.1: Typology of Engagement
Engagement TypeEnjoy AffectivePut in effort
BehavioralSee value
CognitiveExamplePurposefully engagedNoyesYesA student
studies hard for a calculus test because he knows that
understanding the material and doing well on the test are
important to achieving his future goals; he does not enjoy the
studying however.Fully engagedYesYesYesA student enjoys
creating a documentary film project with her peers because she
cares deeply about the topic, and she sees the assignment as a
worthwhile use of her time. She spends a lot of time and effor t
working on this project.Rationally engagedNoNoYesA student
sees the importance of learning about global warming in Earth

Science class, but he is not willing to exert effort required to
concentrate and take notes because he finds the teacher’s lecture
to be excruciatingly boring.Busily engagedNoYesNoA student
works hard to get her homework completed accurately, though
she does not particularly care about the material or the
questions. Nor does she see their relevance to her interests and
aspirations. She finds the prefabricated worksheets she must
complete to be boring and monotonous.
Table 6.1: Typology of Engagement, continued
Engagement TypeEnjoy AffectivePut in effort
BehavioralSee value
CognitiveExamplePleasurably engagedYesNoNoA student
enjoys listening to his teacher relay stories about World War I;
however, he does not value this topic or see it as relevant. He
does not take notes, he does not concentrate on the details the
teacher shares, and he allows his mind to wander
occasionally.Mentally engagedYesNoYesA student enjoys
working on her project in art class and she cares about
mastering the technique; however, it is the day before spring
break and she is not putting a lot of thought or effort into her
project. She is just trying to get it done quickly so the class can
have a partyRecreationally engagedYe sYesNoA student works
hard to help his group-mates score more points than any other
group during a game in class; he is thinking hard and reviewing
his notes carefully to find the correct answers, and he is having
fun with his peers, enjoying the game and the friendly
competition; however, when asked if he values either the
material the class is reviewing or the skills he may be

developing by playing the game, he says, “No. They are not
connected to my larger goals.”
Boring Classes, Bored Students (1)
Figure 6.6: Only about one-sixth of students are highly engaged
in high school. About one-third are disengaged either
behaviorally, emotionally, or cognitively.
Figure 6
42
Boring Classes, Bored Students (2)
Students frequently say that they are bored while in school—
especially among high school students, who find school more
boring than do middle school students.
The make-work, routinized, rigid structure of most classrooms,
with teacher lecture rather than student discussion, alienates

many adolescents from school and undermines their desire to
achieve.
Student boredom is also found in high-achieving schools.
Research shows that students are engaged when teachers
provide opportunities for students to genuinely display their
competencies, when schools facilitate students’ feelings of
belonging to their school, and when students are assigned work
that is “authentic.”
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Adolescence 12e laurence steinbergchapter 6 – schoolscopy

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