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Career Development Effects of Career Magnets Versus Comprehensive Schools (MDS-803)
E. Flaxman, A. Guerrero, D. Gretchen
This study investigated the institutional and social and
psychological effects of attending an urban career magnet high school. It
was designed specifically to examine the differential impact of the
curriculum and instruction in the school, students' extracurricular
experience, work experience while in school after graduation, peer
relationships while in school, and family attitudes toward schooling on the
postsecondary education potential and career development of the graduates
of both career magnet and comprehensive high schools. To determine these
effects, the study used a random assignment database, which was created by
a lottery mechanism used to assign seats in oversubscribed career magnet
high schools.
Study Design
The subjects of the study were 110 graduates of four career magnet
high schools and four comprehensive high schools in New York City. A total
of 51 students who attended and graduated from a career magnet school-the
"lottery winners"-and 59 who attended and graduated from a comprehensive
high school-the "lottery losers"-were included in the study. Because the
subjects were drawn from a database for the study constructed in an
experimental design format, the graduates were selected in pairs in which
one graduate was randomly admitted to a New York City career magnet high
school while the other was randomly rejected from the same school, and
subsequently attended and graduated from a comprehensive high school. In
our study, then, the random selection process assured group equality and
eliminated the initial differences between the groups known as selection
bias. Since the pairs of graduates were constructed by random assignment
and matching, any consistent difference between career magnet and
comprehensive high school graduates could be attributed to the schools they
attended. All 110 graduates were surveyed using closed-ended (Likert scale
and yes/no) and open-ended structured interviews.
The Comparative Effects of the Career Magnet Experience
The graduates of the career magnet and the comprehensive high
schools reported a number of statistically significant differences in their
high school educational and work experiences, career choices and
development, post-high school work and educational experiences, and peer
and family relationships that can explain the impact of the schools on
their career development. In most of their responses to the interview
questions, the graduates of the career magnet high schools were more
articulate than the graduates of the comprehensive high schools: they gave
more answers to questions when given a chance to make a second or third
choice on a scale, and their responses were more specific and comprehensive
to open-ended questions.
The career magnet graduates retained stronger positive feelings
toward their high school than the graduates of the comprehensive high
schools. Given the opportunity, the career magnet graduates said that they
would choose to attend the same high school again because of its career
focus. The comprehensive high school graduates did not indicate that they
would want to return to their high school because of the value of the
education it offered; they would return because of the appeal of the
location, its safety, or the fun they had.
The comprehensive graduates also cut classes more frequently (once
a week) than their career magnet peers (a few times a semester). The career
magnet graduates felt a greater peer pressure not to cut class and were
concerned that they would upset their parents if they did. They also rarely
cut their occupational classes.
The career magnet graduates were significantly less likely to
engage in behaviors associated with poor school performance. They were less
likely to have been in a fight, to smoke, to drink alcohol, to use drugs,
to be pregnant or make someone pregnant, or to be arrested by police on
serious charges. The reduced incidence of academic risk behaviors was the
biggest difference in the two groups while in high school.
Curriculum and Instruction
For the most part, the graduates did not differ in their overall
perception of the impact of their coursework on their career development;
however, the career magnet graduates did feel that they learned more in
their occupationally related classes than in their academic classes, and
were more likely to attribute any positive educational (academic and
career) outcomes of their high school experience to their occupational
classes.
The Role of Teachers and Counselors
Neither the career magnet nor the comprehensive graduates reported
a significant number of contacts with their teachers while in high school.
The career magnet graduates identified only the teachers in their
occupationally related classes as influential in their career choice or
development. Neither the career magnet nor the comprehensive graduates were
likely to talk to a counselor or necessarily attribute any specific
influence to the encounter.
The Role of Extracurricular Activities, Community Service, and Older Adults
Neither the career magnet nor the comprehensive graduates
attributed a great deal of specific importance in their career choice or
development to their extracurricular or volunteer experiences or to any
single person they encountered in the community, although more of the
career magnet graduates than their comprehensive peers thought that
participating in extracurricular activities affected their thinking.
School-Related Work Experience
Many of the career magnet and comprehensive graduates worked while
in high school in jobs related to their schoolwork; although the
comprehensive high school graduates were more likely to hold a job while in
high school. In general, more career magnet graduates than comprehensive
graduates reported that they did class assignments or changed a class
project because of their job experiences. The comprehensive graduates felt
that their work experience only helped them develop specific technical
occupational skills, not necessarily knowledge of future careers or work
norms.
Peer and Parent Influences
The graduates of the career magnet high schools reported that most
of their friends were fellow students in their classes who did not live in
their neighborhoods. More of their social life, then, was centered in the
school, and with school friends rather than with friends in their
neighborhood. By contrast, the graduates of the comprehensive high schools
had friends in their schools and in their neighborhoods both, and they
identified their social life with their neighborhood.
The career magnet graduates, more than the comprehensive graduates,
believed that their parents thought their going to college was the most
important part of their plans for the future, and felt that their parents
believed that it was important for the family to make sacrifices to send
them to college. The comprehensive graduates reported that while their
parents thought going to college was a good idea, their family had few
financial resources to send them to college, and they should not expect to
be supported if they chose to attend.
Post-High School Experience
More of the graduates of the career magnet high school planned to
go to college than the comprehensive graduates did, who postponed such
thoughts. Of those graduates who attended college after graduating from
high school, the career magnet graduates took more college credits. They
also said that they had already declared a major, unlike the comprehensive
graduates.
Most of the graduates quit their high school jobs right after
graduating, but the comprehensive graduates did so at a greater rate. Of
those working in their third job after graduation, however, the career
magnet graduates were more likely to be working full-time than the
comprehensive graduates. After graduation, career magnet graduates
indicated a starting wage that was one dollar higher per hour than the
comprehensive graduates, and it remained higher at the time of the study.
Models of the Influence of Institutional Effects and
Parent Support on Career Magnet Graduates
In a related study of the effects of attending a career magnet high
school, using the data set created for this study, Zellman and Quigley
(1999) developed two models of variables pointing to differences in the
experiences of the career magnet and the comprehensive graduates. The
analyses revealed that the influence of the career magnet graduate is
transmitted through peer relationships and parent support. The career
magnet graduates were more likely to have a best friend who has a career
interest, and thus very likely to have been exposed to an environment where
career thinking and career planning were the norms. Consequently,
friendships in the new environment, away from the neighborhood, were more
likely to form around mature interests than might be otherwise possible; in
turn, graduates might have come to believe that they were developing and
using marketable skills in their career-oriented classes and at work. In
addition, the career magnet high school, with its emphasis on the rewards
of current efforts in the future, likely influenced the youth and his or
her peer group to avoid at-risk behaviors. The analyses also revealed that
a student who graduated from a career magnet high school is 30% more likely
than a comprehensive graduate to perceive that his or her parents would be
willing to make sacrifices to send him or her to college. These same
students were 19% more likely to believe that they would be in their
desired careers within the next six to ten years. Importantly, these models
suggest that of all the variables, attendance at the career magnet high
school itself may have led to parents' assumptions about their children's
seriousness of efforts because it required extra physical and academic
effort to attend. This coupled with other variables in the models, such as
career confidence, avoidance of at-risk behaviors, and career-related
college plans, likely led to parental commitment to their children's
education.
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