Archived: The Educational System in the United States: Case Study Findings

Introduction
One of the concerns in a comparative study of education is the role that school
plays in adolescents’ lives. In order to understand more about this role, we con-
ducted interviews in three major urban areas during the winter and spring of
1995. In addition to talking with adolescents to learn more about their own per-
ceptions, we also observed in classes, lunchrooms, gyms, and hallways. We talked
with parents, teachers, and school administrators to learn their perspectives about
this time of life and the role school appears to play. We were interested in what

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students do when they are at school, what they do when they are not, and how
the two are related. We wanted to know more about the experience of schooling
from the adolescent point of view, what other activities occupy their time and
engage their interest, their issues and concerns, what they care about, how they
approach the future, and how school fits into this picture.
Methodology
Employing an ethnographic Case Study method, researchers conducted interviews
and observations in three urban communities at five comprehensive high schools,
a vocational high school, three middle schools, a junior high school, and an ele-
mentary school that houses grades K–8. Although these were described earlier in
the introduction, brief descriptions are offered in order to provide context for the
comments that follow from students, parents, teachers, and administrators.
Table 1—School profiles
Metro City
Metropolitan School 
is a large, year-round, urban school for grades K–8. Less
than 5 percent of the students were white, nearly two-thirds were African-
American, and nearly a third Hispanic. The community was highly transient,
with a student mobility rate over 80 percent, indicating the number of stu-
dents who enroll in or leave the school during the school year.
King Junior High School 
houses seventh and eighth grade in a racially inte-
grated middle-class community. More than half the students were white, and
just over a third were African-American. Fewer than 1 percent were non-
native speakers of English. The student mobility rate is 4 percent.
Vanderbilt Middle School 
is located in a prosperous upper-middle-class sub-
urban neighborhood and includes grades five through eight. The school pro-
vided elaborate resources for an almost 100 percent white population that
was nearly all college-bound.
Uptown High School
, a large urban high school built around 1910, is in a
highly transient low-income neighborhood that is one of the main ports of
entry for immigrants to the United States. The 2,000 students represented
over 50 nationalities and more than a quarter were enrolled in classes to
learn English as a second language. The drop-out rate exceeded 20 percent.
Per-pupil expenditures averaged $6,600 annually.

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