Jasmine, a social work—criminal justice student at Rutgers University in Newark, grew up in Irvington, New Jersey with her single mother and three siblings. She has an older sister, a younger sister and a twin brother. When her mother died at the beginning of her freshman year in high school, they moved to the Central Ward of Newark to live in a Section 8 apartment in the projects with her grandmother. Actually her grandmother and thirteen other relatives lived in an apartment building across the street, while Jasmine and her siblings lived by themselves, as there just was not enough room for all of them to live together. Since her father was not present in their lives, they were on their own. And even though she has an older sister, Jasmine’s family and friends consider her “the rock” of the family, since she is the one everyone goes to for help, guidance, direction, and decisions. When her mother passed away, it was Jasmine at age 13, who raised her sisters and brother. She called all the shots.
Jasmine resided in what she referred to as the “projects” in Newark. She and her siblings lived in a difficult, challenging neighborhood with high rates of unemployment, crime, drugs, and violence. Jasmine told me that her neighborhood was “very urban” with “a lot of violence.” Elaborating, she said there was a “mix of love and hate and corruption, all in one, mashed together. Like a family.” Like her neighbors, Jasmine and her siblings were poor, which is unremarkable since for most people living in Newark being poor is a way of life. In 2016, nearly 37% of Newark’s residents had income below the poverty level and another 14% had incomes below 50% of the poverty level.
Remarkably, even as she assumed responsibility for the care of her siblings maneuvering her way through a “very urban” neighborhood day-by-day with its attendant challenges, Jasmine excelled in school. Jasmine was considered a high academic achiever, ranking 13th in her high school graduating class at a comprehensive high school in Newark, where according to 2017 data from the New Jersey Department of Education over 35% of the students fail to graduate. Jasmine now attends Rutgers University in Newark, remaining close to her siblings and the city she loves. In the not too distant future, she sees herself making a difference in the lives of young girls who live there. Her dream is to create a nonprofit home in Newark for at-risk adolescent girls but for now, Jasmine is focused on her education and achieving at a high academic level. When I interviewed her at the end of her first semester at Rutgers she had a perfect 4.0 GPA.
This book is about ten students like Jasmine who come from low-income families, were raised in the “very urban” neighborhoods of Newark, New Jersey and despite the stresses that comes from living in poverty, somehow, some way graduated at or near the top of their high school classes. The book describes in their own words how each of them framed positive images of the future and used them to drive their high academic performance. These ten students now attend Rutgers University in Newark or New Brunswick and continue to excel academically. Every one of them sees themselves graduating from college and attaining their life goals.
As part of my Ph.D. dissertation research in the Rutgers University Urban Education Systems program I interviewed these students in 2016 and 2017. Four questions guided my research:
- Do academically successful low-income, inner-city students who have graduated from an urban public high school and attend a four-year university frame and use anticipatory images to guide their academic achievement?
- What anticipatory images do these students frame and how do they frame them?
- How do students use their anticipatory images to realize their imagined future?
- How do others support students in the fulfillment of their anticipatory images?
Defining Anticipatory Images
Anticipatory images are defined as future-oriented images (visions) of the future that influence human behavior and courses of action taken toward those images. This concept is drawn from the organizational development practice of Appreciative Inquiry1 and its anticipatory principle, which posits that humans move in the direction of the images they project ahead of themselves.
Applying a Qualitative Research Design
Using a qualitative research design, I interviewed each of the students and the one person they identified as the individual who most influenced their educational progress. For example, Jasmine identified Ms. Spence, a Rutgers University college readiness counselor who began mentoring and encouraging her to pursue a college education beginning in the ninth grade. Each interview allowed the students to reflect about their educational experiences and the factors that enabled them to be academically successful. The students described the kind of future they imagined for themselves and how their visions changed as they matured. They also discussed how their images of a desired, idealized future influenced their behavior and actions and their perception about education. The roles other people played in their educational progress were also discussed during the interviews.
Acknowledging Research Limitations
Admittedly, retrospective memory upon which this qualitative research is based is a limitation to be acknowledged. However, my questioning of the students and their influential other person evoked responses of first impression, as they did not have advanced knowledge of what I would ask them. Interestingly, their responses to my questions were instantaneous, indicating to me at least, an honest and immediate recall of memories and life-course events. It must also be emphasized that the findings in this study cannot and should not be generalized for all students since there are many factors that contribute to student academic success and, quite frankly, it is impossible to objectively conclude that anticipatory images plays any role in student achievement. That being said, I think you will find the statements of the students very interesting and perhaps, provocative.
Creating a Safe, Welcoming Interview Environment
As I prepared to interview the students and the one person they identified as the one who most influenced their educational progress, I was self-conscious of the fact that I am an older white man interviewing young low-income Black and Hispanic students. I hoped that this would not cause any of them to feel uncomfortable in any way. Intuitively, though, I expected that it might. To mitigate any discomfort, I projected a warm, welcoming, and affirming demeanor. My intention was to create a comfortable and safe atmosphere for conducting the interviews. While I did not ask any of the individuals interviewed if they were uncomfortable, I did advise them that they could withdraw from the interview at any time if they felt uncomfortable with the process or me. No one did. Upon our initial greeting, I think everyone was amused and surprised that I was a Ph.D. student at my age (64 at the time) with some of them remarking, “that’s great” or “ah a great example of continuous learning.”
Selecting Students Who Beat-the-Odds
Purposefully, I recruited and selected Rutgers University students who attended and graduated from public schools in Newark at or near the top of their class. Charter school students were not included since I was only interested in those students who had to overcome overwhelming odds in graduating from traditional public high schools. However, future studies should replicate this study for Newark charter school students, as many of these schools claim they foster grit in their students. Of the ten students in this study, four of them attended a comprehensive public high school, while six attended a public magnet school. For the purpose of clarity, magnet high schools receive special instruction and have access to programs designed to attract a more diverse student body from throughout the district. Students commute across neighborhood boundaries to attend these magnet schools. Their admission was based primarily on a standardized admissions test, which has since been discontinued in the Newark Public Schools system. These students were among the top 5% of all Newark eighth graders who took the test. The magnet schools they attended offer specialized instruction and curricula in the arts, humanities, or science. According to the NJ Department of Education, the graduation rates of Newark’s magnet school students are significantly higher than for those students attending any one of the comprehensive high schools. The average graduation rate for the three magnet schools attended by the students in this study was 94.46% compared to 65.43% for those students who attended the four comprehensive high schools NJ Department of Education (2018).
Newark’s comprehensive public high schools, on the other hand, are similar to public high schools throughout the United States. Examinations and grades are used to sort students into different populations and programs. Typically, comprehensive high schools provide a range of instruction and curricula for students preparing to attend college or those needing remedial or vocational instruction. It is worth repeating that Newark’s comprehensive public high schools are behind the national average in graduation rates with an adjusted cohort 4-year high school graduation rate of just 74% (Backstrand, Donalson, & Ratani, 2018). This means that 26% of entering 9th graders fail to graduate from Newark’s comprehensive public high schools (Backstrand et al., 2018). For students who attend any of Newark’s six magnet schools the prospect for graduation is brighter with a graduation rate of 95% (NJ Department of Education, 2018). For Jasmine and the three other students who graduated at the top of their class from a Newark comprehensive high school it was a beat-the-odds type of accomplishment.
Introducing the Students
It is important for you to know that pseudonyms were used to protect the students’ anonymity, as well as the individuals they identified as having influenced their educational progress. While you have already met Jasmine, let me introduce you to the other nine:
Sofia
When interviewed for this study, Sofia was a nineteen-year-old Latina of Dominican decent. She graduated ninth in her class from a magnet high school in Newark, New Jersey, which boasted a 90.91% 2016 adjusted cohort graduation rate in a district in which more than one-quarter of its students do not graduate (NJ Department of Education, 2017). At the time, she was a student in her freshman year at Rutgers University in Newark in its Honors Living and Learning Community (HLLC), which is an innovative “transformative college access and success program that fosters the academic, social, and personal development of talented students from all walks of life with a desire to make a difference in their communities and beyond (HLLC, 2017).” As an HLLC student Sofia was exposed to a curriculum of publicly engaged scholarship designed to address pressing issues of local and global citizenship. At the conclusion of her first year of university studies, Sofia attained a 3.0 GPA.
Sofia grew up and resides with her family in the North Ward of Newark, an impoverished neighborhood beset with problems attendant with the effects of poverty, such as crime. While Sofia credits her parents as influencers of her educational drive and performance, she told me that her best friend, Alejandro most influenced her educational progress. In the future, Sofia sees herself as a nonprofit executive serving the needs of vulnerable people.
Alexis
Alexis was an African American female student in Rutgers University– Newark’s HLLC program, who attained a cumulative 3.3 GPA at the conclusion of her second year. She graduated fourth in her class from a Newark magnet high school, which at the time boasted a 96.21% graduation rate (NJ Department of Education, 2017).
Raised by her mother and father, she grew up in the Vailsburg section of Newark’s West Ward. Like Sofia, Alexis grew up in a neighborhood affected by poverty, crime, drugs, and violence. She commuted by public transportation to her magnet high school, taking two buses every day. She bega...