Attitudes and perceptions of at-risk linguistic minority high school students in extended-time academic classes

This study investigated the attitudes and perceptions of two groups of linguistic minority high school students regarding their experiences in extended-time academic classes. The study utilized attitudinal surveys and focus group discussions to explore the participants' sense of self-efficacy as related to their experiences in both mathematics and language arts extended-time classes. In addition, the study examined the students' attitudes and perceptions regarding their previous and current educational experiences.;The student participants were enrolled in five high schools located in the Chicago suburban area. Thirty-six students from two different home language backgrounds participated in the study. Of these students, twenty-four were Latino and twelve were Arabic. The Latino student group was comprised of seventeen freshmen and seven sophomores, and the Arabic group included seven freshmen and five sophomores.;The study was designed to respond to the following research questions: (1) What are at-risk linguistic minority high school students' attitudes toward math and English language arts, based on two surveys adapted from the self-efficacy subscale of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire? (2) In what ways do at-risk linguistic minority high school students describe their experiences in extended-time academic classes? (3) In what ways do at-risk linguistic minority high school students describe how their previous educational experiences prepared them for high school academics?;The open, axial, and selective coding process was utilized to categorize, analyze, and create themes from the focus group data. Descriptive statistics were employed to report the attitudinal survey data, which complemented the focus group findings. The results of the study indicated that both the Latino and the Arabic students generally exhibited positive attitudes and perceptions regarding their experiences in extended-time classes, as well as relatively strong self-efficacy for academic success in both language arts and mathematics. Additional key findings were that student attitudes and perceptions seemed to be related to two factors, the role of the teacher and student understanding of the rationale for program placement. Furthermore, several linguistic background differences between the Latino and Arabic students were noted. Finally, the results suggested that the English language development program in which the students had participated in elementary school appeared to have had limited influence on their current attitudes and perceptions.