Page 62 - Volume 4 - Issue 1 - DBU Journal of K-12 Educational Research

60 the students’ plan of going or not going to college. The explanation of the absence of connection between students’ academic performance and their college aspirations is beyond the scope of the current study. The results of the current study further revealed that the students’ attendance as measured by their number of absences in the classroom has no connection with the students’ plans of going or not going to college. The explanation of the absence of connection between students’ attendance and their college aspirations may be beyond the scope of the current study; however, given a normal setting, if students were attending classes, they would learn things that transpired in school. High school graduates were able to identify their reasons for not going to college. The most frequent to the least frequent reported reasons are the following: need to work (28.8%), need help applying for college (15.3%), need more academic preparations (15.3%), military (5.1%), and certification program (5.1%). The “need help applying for college” and “need more academic preparation” responses received the same percentage rate. It can be conjectured that students who need help applying for college may also have said that they need more academic preparation. The intricacies of college application in the United States require that experienced persons should guide students to walk them through the process if they desire to go to college unless the students are really well-versed in finding their way through the difficult college application processes. Many of the respondents of the current study are not only low- income, but first-generation college goers. Many of them do not have family members who have gone to college who can mentor them through the process. These students lack social networks that can guide them in the process of looking for scholarships and enrolling in college. Some students may not even know that there are scholarships available for them. Furthermore, high school graduates reported several experiences related to their reasons for aspiring to go to college. Their reported reasons were categorized within the two broad themes of social capital and ethic of care based on the conceptualization of several researchers and scholars on the establishment of a college-going culture in the P-12 setting (Coleman, 1988; Coleman-Tucker, 2014; Holland, 2012; Paulson, 2010; Perez-Felkner, 2015; Prothero, 2017). Students who aspire to go to college see college as a means to make their life better. It is a pathway in finding their mission in life, a sense of fulfillment for themselves and their family, a desire for self-advancement, and a demonstration of their love for learning. Although 78% of respondents shared that they were planning to go to college versus the 22% who were not planning to go to college, the current study does not suggest that there are more graduates from two charter schools who are planning to go to college than graduates not going to college. High school graduates reported their perceptions concerning their preparation for college, and were categorized within the two broad themes of social capital and ethic of care based on the work of several researchers on college-going culture (Coleman, 1988; Coleman-Tucker, 2014; Paulson, 2010; Holland, 2012; Perez-Felkner, 2015; Prothero, 2017). For social capital, the following subthemes were generated: • school and family, • peers/school programs/school environment, • teachers and parents, • rigorous curriculum/college preparatory courses, • financial assistance/information/assistance on college application/FAFSA, and • larger community/self-determination. For ethic of care, the following subthemes were developed: • bond between teachers and students beyond norm, • inspiring students to dream big, • college expectations/communicating confidence on students’ capacity to succeed, and • mentoring relationships. Based on the subthemes that emerged, the social capital and ethic of care experience of students has encouraged them to go to college. Some graduates have expressed regrets that their personal experiences may not have been systematically and consistently shared by all students in school. One student calls his experience the “luck of the Arlyn Vergara-Unating, EdD