This phenomenological retrospective study investigates the transitional experiences of five graduates from one rural schools classes. The study has two guiding themes: (a) the factors which influence graduating students decisions for their futures, and (b) the transitions they experience following those decisions.<p> High school graduation and the subsequent transition to life after high school was the phenomenon that each participant had undergone. During semi-structured interviews, participants discussed their decisions before and after that delineating moment. The research question was: What supports do recent graduates perceive to have existed in a small rural school to assist students in their transition from school to post secondary education or the workforce? Follow up interview questions were: (a) What challenges have recent graduates faced as they transitioned from high school to their current positions as post secondary students or employees? (b) What supports do recent graduates believe should be implemented to assist future graduates in their upcoming transitions from high school to post secondary education or the workforce?<p> The study results indicated that graduates perceive schools role as peripheral or tangential to their transition to their post secondary lives. The caring and interested relationships developed between students and school personnel while important, are at best, incidental and not perceived to be instrumental and in one case may be seen as limiting. The data reveals the significant influence of family, or social habitus and cultural capital on both the career and life decisions and on the transitions experienced by the participants as they adjusted to life after high school. Challenges and transitions were recounted and participant suggestions for schools were discussed. I indicated the need for increased professional development for teachers in the area of career development and transitioning, as well as the need for an expanded recognition of the pivotal roles held by family members in the transition to adulthood. Finally, I reflected on areas for further investigation which include gathering more insights from young adults and students as well as their families, investigating the transitions implicit in entering the workforce, and exploring the issue of providing hope for rural communities and schools.

This phenomenological retrospective study investigates the transitional experiences of five graduates from one rural schools classes. The study has two guiding themes: (a) the factors which influence graduating students decisions for their futures, and (b) the transitions they experience following those decisions.<p> High school graduation and the subsequent transition to life after high school was the phenomenon that each participant had undergone. During semi-structured interviews, participants discussed their decisions before and after that delineating moment. The research question was: What supports do recent graduates perceive to have existed in a small rural school to assist students in their transition from school to post secondary education or the workforce? Follow up interview questions were: (a) What challenges have recent graduates faced as they transitioned from high school to their current positions as post secondary students or employees? (b) What supports do recent graduates believe should be implemented to assist future graduates in their upcoming transitions from high school to post secondary education or the workforce?<p> The study results indicated that graduates perceive schools role as peripheral or tangential to their transition to their post secondary lives. The caring and interested relationships developed between students and school personnel while important, are at best, incidental and not perceived to be instrumental and in one case may be seen as limiting. The data reveals the significant influence of family, or social habitus and cultural capital on both the career and life decisions and on the transitions experienced by the participants as they adjusted to life after high school. Challenges and transitions were recounted and participant suggestions for schools were discussed. I indicated the need for increased professional development for teachers in the area of career development and transitioning, as well as the need for an expanded recognition of the pivotal roles held by family members in the transition to adulthood. Finally, I reflected on areas for further investigation which include gathering more insights from young adults and students as well as their families, investigating the transitions implicit in entering the workforce, and exploring the issue of providing hope for rural communities and schools.

The aim of this study was to investigate whether there was a statistically significant difference in collegiate success rates of GED credential recipients and high school graduates in community colleges. Data obtained from the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) PeopleSoft system at Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College (SKCTC) were used. The specific research questions investigated were as follows: 1. Is there a significant difference in academic success in the community college as measured by overall grade point average (GPA) of GED credential recipients as compared to high school graduates? 2. Is there a significant difference in academic success between GED credential recipients and high school graduates as it relates to gender? 3. Is there a significant difference in academic success between GED credential recipients and high school graduates as it relates to age? SPSS version 14.0 was used in this research study. Cross tabulations were performed for each question. Group statistics were computed for the data providing the means, standard deviation, and standard error of the mean for each research question. Independent sample tests were also performed, including Levene’s test for equality of variances and t-tests for equality of means. The findings of the study indicate that there was a statistically significant difference in student success rates comparing GED credential recipients and high school graduates. High school graduates had a mean GPA that was 0.368 points higher than that of GED credential students. In addition, there was little difference in GPAs between male and female students. Males had an average mean GPA that was 0.009 points lower than that of female students. Finally, the age of students had a significant influence on overall GPA. The researcher determined that for each year increase in age, there was an increase of 0.018 in GPA.

This qualitative study examined Urban Black high school students’ pathways to academic success, with particular attention to their perspectives about achieving academic success despite stereotype threats and impeding social factors, the support systems they rely upon, and the coping mechanisms they employ when encountering challenges. Study data suggested that the way urban Black high school students achieved academic success despite stereotype threats and impeding social factors is to identify and focus on their goals, circumventing what obstacles they could and cognitively and emotionally coping with what they could not. Students primarily relied upon family members, community members, school staff, and college-bound programs as support mechanisms. In response to challenge, they employed coping mechanisms of cognitive, emotional, and behavioral strategies that enhanced their focus on the goal, reduced their stress, helped them avoid distraction, and promoted their achievement of the goal. These strategies indicated that the students possessed grit and a growth mindset. The relatively few instances of racism and stereotyping identified in this study indicate the need for more study conducted using different methods to reveal the more widespread and insidious instances of racism and stereotyping within school systems. Longitudinal research also may be helpful for revealing the challenges, racism, and stereotypes students experience as they happen, along with the sensemaking, coping strategies, and support mechanisms they employ to persist through to completion. Keywords: African American, Urban, high school students, racism, stereotype threat, success factors

L'objet de ce travail de thèse est l'exploration des facteurs qui influencent la réussite académique des étudiants (n= 1447) dans les Instituts Universitaires de Technologie (IUT) tout au long des deux années que dure la préparation du diplôme universitaire de technologie (DUT). La réussite dans l'enseignement supérieur en France semble très liée au baccalauréat obtenu et à son niveau deréussite (Duru-Bellat & Kieffer, 2008), les IUT présentent de ce point de vue une double singularité intéressante pour explorer cette question. Comparés aux autres filières de l'Université française, les bacheliers technologiques y sont proportionnellement plus nombreux et y réussissent mieux. Ces instituts sont en cela fidèles à leur rôle institutionnel. Néanmoins, la proportion des bachelierstechnologiques décroît sur le long terme et ils y réussissent moins bien que leurs homologues des baccalauréats généraux.Cette exploration des facteurs de réussite passe par une modélisation statistique de la moyenne de fin de semestre, à la fois intégrative et longitudinale. L'objectif est alors de discerner les facteurs ayant le plus d'influence sur la performance et la progression durant un semestre. Le cadre théorique retenu contient quatre familles de variables. La première rassemble les caractéristiques personnelles des individus lors de leur entrée à l'IUT, la deuxième porte sur leur perception du contexte académique, la troisième et la quatrième sont respectivement constituées de leur motivation et de leur engagement dans l'apprentissage. Ces familles de variables sont introduites par bloc pour la première année suivant un schéma global préétabli.Cette spécification a mis en évidence l'importance du passé scolaire parmi les caractéristiques personnelles en début d'IUT. Dans le contexte académique, l'implication enseignante perçue est la variable la plus influente. Pour la motivation, le Sentiment d'Efficacité Personnel possèdel'influence la plus marquée. Enfin, les dimensions cognitives et comportementales de l'engagement ont émergé avec l'apprentissage en surface et la régulation des ressources disponibles respectivement. Exception faite de l'implication enseignante, les dimensions psychosociales perdent de leur influence au fur et à mesure que le temps passe, phénomène assimilable à une élasticité décroissante de la moyenne avec le temps. Enfin, le constat le plus massif est l'effet des variables du passé scolaire, notamment le type de baccalauréat et la mention. Ces variables ne sont quasiment pas médiatisées par les autres variables sauf s'il s'agit d'indicateurs de la performance académique comme la moyenne d'un semestre par exemple. L'écart en fin de première année entre bacheliers technologiques et scientifiques est très important, il équivaut à environ deux niveaux de mention au baccalauréat. De plus, la progression des bacheliers technologiques s'avère plus difficile que celle des scientifiques au second semestre et l'écart entre ces types de bacheliers tend à diminuer en fin de deuxième année. Même si un surcroît de motivation, une meilleure orientation de l'engagement sont des leviers pour favoriser la réussite des bacheliers technologiques, la grandeur des effets attendus ne permet pas de penser qu'il s'agit de solutions suffisantes pour combler le fossé observé. Cette explication des différences par l'amont, bien que convaincante, n'est toutefois pas suffisante pour expliquer les observations conditionnées aux différents cursus : il semble bien exister des établissements ou des cursus plus ou moins favorables aux bacheliers technologiques. / This thesis aims to explore factors influencing students' (n=1447) academic achievement in the technological stream of French university (IUT) during the two years preparation of their technological university degree. French students' achievement seems to be strongly tied with thetype of their high school diploma (technological vs scientific) (Duru-Bellat & Kieffer, 2008), the IUTs present two interesting singularities to examine this question. Compared to Students from other French university streams, IUTs' students with technological background are proportionally more numerous and obtain better results. IUTs are thus assumed their institutional role. Nevertheless, proportions of students with technological background decrease from year to year and these students are less successful than the scientific ones. The exploration of factors influencing achievement goes through a statistic model of average of bi-annual grades. The aim is to discern the most significant factors affecting results and progression during academic terms. To this end, the framework contains four families of variables. The first onebrings together student personal background information when they enter the IUT. The second one is about the students' perception of academic context. The third and the fourth families are respectively motivation and engagement in learning. These families of variables are graduallyintroduced according to a predetermined pattern. This specification highlights the predominance of academic past among personal background. It reveals that perceived involvement of teachers is the most influential variable in the perception of academic context. Self-Efficacy has the most remarkable influence on progress and academic results. The cognitive and behavioral dimensions of engagement have finally arisen with surface approach of learning, and regulation of available resources respectively. Except for the perceived involvement of teachers, all the psychosocial factors impact less academic terms' averages asstudents continue their studies . This phenomenon can be compared to a decrease of elasticity of average over time. Finally, to notice that despite the introduction of those psychosocial variables, the past academic story remains the strongest and the most significant predictor of academic termsaverages. The academic past is barely mediated by variables introduced in the model, except if these variables are academic performance indicators like intermediate academic terms averages. The gap between students with technological high school diploma and students with scientific one, in termof average at the end of the first year, can be considered as being very large. This gap can be indeed estimated as a high school diploma with distinction or one with merit only. Furthermore, it's more difficult to improve for technological high school graduates than for the scientific ones during thefirst year. Nevertheless, the difference in terms of averages between technological and scientific high school graduates tends to decrease after two years. A better motivation and an increased engagement are positive means to foster the tech high school graduates’ achievement but the importance of the expected effects is too small to think it could be enough to fill the gap. Although this explanation of differences of academic terms averages and of academic progress by the past academic story is convincing, it is not enough to explain the observations depending on the different curricula. These observations show that the domain or curriculum has an impact on the success ofthe technological high school graduate.