Supporting teens their way

Concerns about persistent racial and socioeconomic achievement gaps continue to place U.S. schools at the center of a national debate about youth development and educational accountability. To ensure that all students have equal access to educational curricula, most U.S. schools rely on a system of learning supports--a network of school- and community-based prevention and intervention programs intended to address social, emotional, and cognitive barriers to learning. Although there is evidence that providing students with holistic support services can improve academic and behavioral outcomes, little is known about how adolescents experience these services. Without this understanding, the design and implementation of learning supports risks irrelevance. Thus, this study investigates how adolescents interpret and choose the learning supports available to them. The data for this paper were collected in collaboration with a team of adolescent researchers during the summer of 2011. Our team investigated how local adolescents made meaning of available learning supports and how, if at all, this meaning making directed their support-seeking decisions. To do this, we collected 208 surveys, conducted 33 interviews, and facilitated four focus groups. In addition, I collected data from the research team over the course of the summer. In this dissertation, I report on a secondary analysis that I conducted using these data. The first two chapters of the dissertation provide an overview of the research context, including important practical and theoretical frameworks. The third chapter shares information about the study methodology, as well as evidence of how researching collaboratively with adolescents shaped this methodology. Chapters 4, 5, and 6 present the main findings of this dissertation: (1) an analysis of how our participants defined and constructed support through their narratives, (2) an analysis of the considerations and strategies that our participants used when choosing when and where to seek support, and (3) an analysis of the moments when some of our participants chose non-traditional supports. Chapter 7 provides a discussion of the study's implications for future research and practice. In sum, this study seeks to provide school-based administrators, service providers, and educators with a deeper understanding of adolescents' interpretations of learning supports.