ORCID
0009-0006-6679-1820
Keywords
Ethnography, critical realism, college readiness, high school, low-income, culture
Subject Categories
Educational Leadership | Higher Education | Secondary Education
Abstract
Since 1983, the United States (U.S.) mandated that all public high schools incorporate college and career readiness (CCR) programming into their curriculum to ensure graduating students were adequately prepared for college and vocational pathways (Wells et al., 2019). However, deficit-based policy interpretations have led to uneven implementation of CCR interventions across secondary contexts (Castro, 2021). Schools with a lower concentration of lower-income students generally receive college readiness course offerings and schools that serve predominantly lower-income communities primarily receive workforce readiness curriculum. Consequently, students from lower-income communities are less likely to enroll in college or earn a four-year degree (Cahalan et al., 2024). The purpose of this critical realist ethnography is to explore the ways one high school comprised of lower-income students fosters CCR by examining the causal mechanisms that enable the everyday practices and interactions present across two classrooms. This study uses Welner’s (2001) Zone of Mediation as a theoretical framework to understand how institutions account for community, political, and institutional forces to mediate broad educational policy for their students as well as how students construct meaning around CCR. Participant observation was coupled with twelve student interviews and eight staff interviews to contextualize the events and experiences observed during data collection. Results indicated that the school’s collaborative, interactive-driven context facilitated a culture of high expectations, responsiveness, and relational trust. These findings reveal that while CCR is a broad policy mandate, in practice, it also functions as a cultural construct shaped and enacted by relationships, normative practices, and organizational habitus.
Completion Date
2026
Semester
Summer
Committee Chair
Marsh, L. Trenton S.
Degree
Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)
College
College of Community Innovation and Education
Department
Learning Sciences & Educational Research
Format
Document Type
Dissertation
Language
English
Release Date
8-15-2028
STARS Citation
Lovelace, Jesica, "College Readiness in Practice: A Critical Realist Ethnography Exploring How Readiness is Operationalized in a Lower-Income High School" (2026). Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026. 300.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/gradstudies_etd_2026/300
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