The research behind Ramp-Up: motivation
Printer-friendly versionEvery student needs a vision of his or her future that can motivate hard work in school. A motivated student often develops a personal sense of direction and purpose, and channels the motivation towards a particular outcome.cit.Maehr and Midgley, Transforming School Culture, Boulder, CO, Westview Press. 1996 If students recognize why they should aim for success in school, understand the relevance of their academic classes, and know that they will benefit from their effort, they will be motivated to achieve college readiness.
The primary issue of motivation is not whether students have it. They do. It is a matter of how they choose to invest it, towards what outcome. Motivation is like money—it can be used in a variety of ways. The issue is how these resources are invested and with what results.
Schools not only affect student investment, they can cause it, especially for students from low-income backgrounds.cit.Maehr and Midgley, Transforming School Culture, Boulder, CO, Westview Press. 1996 Schools that create a college readiness culture shape the individual goals their students come to hold. When schools fail to convey a strong sense of purpose, they are unlikely to elicit the investment of students in learning.
Postsecondary Plans have been shown to have positive effects on student outcomes. For example, a statistical analysis of the factors that promote postsecondary entrance and attainment among African-American males in the 1990s concluded that developing postsecondary plans had a positive effect on student outcomes and that, in fact, “educational plans that students had were three times as important as family socioeconomic status (SES) in predicting whether they would continue in postsecondary training.”cit.Wilson-Sadberry, K.R., Winfield, L.F., & Royster, D.A. (1991). Resilience and persistence of African-American males in post-secondary enrollment. Education and Urban Society, 24(1), p. 99. Another study of Latino student persistence toward a bachelor’s degree concluded that “planning and postsecondary activities as early as eighth grade increases the prospects for completing college.”cit.Kuh, G., Kinzie, J., Buckley, J., Bridges, B., Hayek, J (July 2006). “What Matters to Student Success: A Review of the Literature,” Commissioned Report for the National Symposium on Postsecondary Student Success: Spearheading a Dialog on Student Success, National Postsecondary Education Cooperative, p. 22.
