African Americans and College Choice: The Influence of Family and School

INTRODUCTION: The Puzzle of College Aspirations versus Attendance

INTRODUCTION The Puzzle of College Aspirations versus Attendance African Americans have always placed a high premium on education , believing it to be the one commodity that could empower them. African American sociologist Billingsley (1992) writes that “the thirst for learning like the thirst for family life crossed the Atlantic with the African captives” (p. 174). That very fact makes it even more puzzlling, then, that on the one hand, African Americans have consistently been found to have higher educational aspirations than other groups—particularly when background variables are held constant (Hearn, 1991; Orfield et al., 1984; St. John, 1991)—but on the other hand, their aspirations have not always translated into higher education participation. Researchers Hearn, Griswold, Marine, and McFarland (1995) have explored an aspect of the puzzle in their study titled Dreams Realized and Dreams Deferred. Their findings, in effect, continue to support the reality of the “disjunction between expectations and attainment of Black students” (p. 13). Other researchers (e.g., Thomas, 1980) have made similar findings. However, while most researchers and policymakers seem to acknowledge the existence of this puzzle, instead of trying to explore more deeply the meaning of such a paradox in order to build on the high aspirations of these students to attend college, they seem to accept the notion put forth by St. John (1991): “Pre1 sumably, Blacks have higher post-secondary aspirations than other applicants with similar test scores and high school experiences . Thus, while high aspirations improve the probability that Black and low-income students will attend college, having high aspirations alone does not guarantee their college attendance” (p. 153). In other words, while there is acknowledgment that African Americans have high aspirations and that their aspirations do not translate into college attendance, researchers have tended to ignore why this is the case and have failed to develop ways to change this pattern. Closing the gap between aspiration and participation in higher education for African American students is particularly important since educators and economists are in agreement on the importance of increasing their college attendance. More specifically, Simms (1995) has discussed the direct relationship between African Americans ’ postsecondary education and their economic success. If aspirations are “wishes or desires expressing an individual’s hopes about the future” (Chapman, 1981, p. 494), intuitively, it would seem that in order to increase the participation of African Americans in higher education it would be imperative to better understand the disjunction between their hopes about the value of education and their actual participation. Better understanding this puzzle could explain for policymakers and researchers why it has been difficult to increase African American college attendance to an acceptable level. The intent of this book is to search for pieces of the puzzle. What do we know about the overall relationship between aspirations and participation, particularly as it relates to African Americans ’ decision process to attend college? What are the missing links between these students’ aspirations and actual participation? How can better understanding this relationship inform policymaking , particularly as it relates to increasing African Americans’ college attendance? The Puzzle Discussions of aspiration and decision making relative to attending college generally focus on cultural and social capital and economic and financial capital (Hossler, Braxton, & Coopersmith, 2 African Americans and College Choice 1989). However, Orfield et al. (1984) conducted a comprehensive study of access and choice in higher education in Chicago which concluded that minorities are channeled into college based on defined geographic locations—where they live. While most choice theorists would include the concept of channeling—a concept that is greatly underexamined—under the cultural and social models of decision making, it is considered separately in this book. The sociological model of student choice (which is the umbrella model for cultural and social capital), at least as described by Hossler, Braxton, and Coopersmith (1989), focuses on the factors which influence aspiration. This model describes the family socioeconomic level and student academic ability as predictors of students’ aspiration for college. It is noteworthy, however, that in a study where the socioeconomic status was held constant, African Americans were more likely than Whites to begin some college (Olivas, cited in Orfield et al., 1984). Hossler, Braxton, and Coopersmith (1989) also indicated that expectations from others, such as parents, teachers, and friends, also influence students’ aspiration to participate in higher education. According to Orfield et al. (1984), next to socioeconomic status, the secondary school attended is the primary structure that...