African Americans and College Choice
The Influence of Family and School
Description:... Assesses the influence of family and school on African American students' college decision-making processes.
Acknowledging the disparity between the number of African American high school students who aspire toward higher education and the number who actually attend, this book uncovers factors that influence African American students' decisions regarding college. Kassie Freeman brings new insights to the current body of research on African Americans and higher education by examining the impact that family, school, community, and home have in the decision-making process. She explores specific factors that contribute to a student's predisposition toward higher education, including gender, economics, and high school curriculum, and seeks to bridge the gap in understanding why aspiration does not immediately translate into participation. Educators and policy makers interested in increasing African American students' participation in higher education will benefit from the exploration of this paradox.
"I do not believe that Freeman nor her readers are naïve enough to believe that the transformation and the promotion of schools as harbingers of African American college choice will metamorphically occur with the closing of the book. However, what Freeman has done is given us the research data that is required, along with the conceptual maps for envisioning, developing, and implementing fundamental educational change." from the Foreword by M. Christopher Brown II
"Given the shrinking number of African Americans attending college, the analysis of their decisions, coupled with family and schooling influences, is highly significant." Carol Camp Yeakey, coeditor of Surmounting All Odds: Education, Opportunity, and Society in the New Millennium
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