Welcome to the Staying On the Path Toward College Family Case!
The Staying on the Path Toward College Interactive Case explores how schools and communities can work with Latino families to increase young people’s opportunities to attend college and succeed in life. The transition to middle school is a particularly important juncture along students’ academic pipeline to college, because the courses children take early in their middle school careers begin to influence the college and career paths they will be inclined to pursue. Unfortunately, we also know that a large number of ethnically diverse and low-income youth leave the academic pipeline prematurely. This case is designed to help educators understand the home, school, peer group, and community factors that influence decisions Latino youth might make during the transition to middle school, and it explores ways that families, schools, and youth-serving community organizations can work together to ensure that all children have the opportunity to pursue higher education.
What you will learn
The purpose of this case is to give educators an opportunity to explore the complex relationships among peers, families, educators, and staff from youth-serving organizations that influence whether a student stays the path toward college. You will learn:
- How different stakeholders, including parents, teachers, peers, and college outreach leaders, can share responsibility and guidance in helping middle school students transition to high school and stay the path toward college;
- The nature of the transition to middle school as a continuous process that starts in elementary school and continues into the transition to high school;
- How school climate can shape the transition to middle school; and
- How data can guide efforts to increase college going among middle and high school students.
Directions
On the pages that follow, you will be introduced to the six people in the case.
- Read each person’s narrative.
- After you read each person’s narrative, you will have a chance to reflect on her strengths and concerns. You can type your reflections right into the space provided on the webpage.
- A pop-up box will appear with some ideas you might have written about. You can then move on to reading about the next person in the case and reflect on that person’s ideas.
- Along the way, you will be provided with some supplementary data to consider. When you have completed reading all of the perspectives, you will have a chance to take a step back and think about the bigger issues presented in the case.
Let’s get started: Read Paulo’s Profile
The full-length version of the Staying On the Path Toward College case is available here. The original case is featured in the book Preparing Educators to Engage Families: Case Studies Using an Ecological Systems Framework, 3rd edition, available for purchase from Sage Publications. Explore our other interactive family cases!
