How perceptions of school membership influence high school students' academic development: Implications for adolescents at risk of educational failure.

This dissertation is about how perceptions of school membership influence high school students' academic development, particularly adolescents at risk of educational failure. Specifically, I draw on psychological, sociological, and educational theory to create a measure of perceived school membership that consists of three, interrelated dimensions commonly discussed in the literature: (1) students' feelings of belonging (e.g., Do students feel their teachers care about them? Do students feel that they fit in with other students in the school?); (2) students' commitment to school (e.g., Do students feel that school is important for their future?), and; (3) students' commitment to academic work (e.g., Do students find their academic work personally rewarding?). I use data from a nationally representative sample of high school students to show that these three dimensions of students' feelings are empirically related and form a reliable and valid scale for measuring students' perceptions of school membership. I then use this measure of perceived membership to investigate the causal processes that underlie observed relationships between certain types of student- and school-related variables and several variables measuring students' academic behaviors, attitudes, and achievement. One of the most important findings of this dissertation is that adolescents who may be most in need of perceived school membership and may benefit most from it (i.e., those at risk) perceived lower levels of high-school membership than their peers. An equally important, though not surprising, finding is that perceived school membership is associated with school characteristics. Specifically, perceived membership was higher in schools where students had more authority over academic work and attended homerooms. Results presented in this dissertation also show clear and consistently positive effects of perceived school membership on academic outcomes. That is, students' own perceptions of high-school membership are associated with their positive academic behaviors, attitudes, and achievement. Moreover, there is a contextual effect of high-school membership; academic development is higher in schools characterized by higher average school membership. Finally, results presented in this dissertation suggest that to some extent perceived school membership is more beneficial for at-risk students. Policy implications and limitations are discussed in the final chapter.PhDEducationEducational psychologyEducational sociologySecondary educationUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/131793/2/9929957.pd