The Value of Conformity: Learning to Stay in School

This study of 12 high school Chicano students and their families in La Victoria, Colorado, provides an understanding of the social conditions that assist some students to stay in school while others feel compelled to leave. Identified common denominators among these students included their residential tenure in the United States, language, socioeconomic status, and residential location at the time of the study. Differences of experiences among students appeared in teacher judgments about students' behavior, the family's value of schooling, and the level of parental involvement in the student's education. The students that remained in school differed on their ability to conform to the school's regulations from those students who dropped out. Students who remained in school received qualitatively different social and emotional familial support from their parents to help them deal with school rules and conflicts than did their counterparts who dropped out of school.