Maintaining the Segregated City?: Exploring the College Planning Experiences of Kansas City’s Urban Students of Color and the Implications on Their Access to Higher Education

Abstract

This dissertation examined the role of school-based college planning guidance services in the college trajectories of central city students of color. It is projected that by 2018, most jobs will require some postsecondary training beyond high school, placing almost 60 million Americans at risk of being locked out of the middle class because of limited educational attainments. Thus, college guidance services become critical for disenfranchised students who may require greater technical assistance and support to access college. To explore the role of school-based college planning guidance services, this dissertation examined the college planning experiences of students of color enrolled at two distinct urban public high schools in a Midwestern community plagued with longstanding traditions of disenfranchisement resulting from decades of segregated schools and communities. This case study utilized a critical approach through the lens of critical race theory, heuristic inquiry, and narratology to capture the essence of the college planning experiences as expressed by African American high school seniors, parents, and recent graduates affiliated with two central city public schools, each notorious for the highest and lowest rates of college placement amongst its graduates. The case studies of 8 high school seniors within two distinct school cultures within the same neighborhood, served as illustrations of the inequitable provision of college planning guidance in place to equip urban students of color to compete with their suburban peers without equal college planning exposure or supports. Underperforming school systems must examine their role and assume full accountability for ineffective services that contribute to the economic and academic disenfranchisement of students of color. The perpetuation of limited access to higher education is critically detrimental for urban students relegated to neighborhood schools without the means for economic mobility. Without navigational support and technical assistance the cycle of disenfranchisement is likely to continue, preserving traditions of segregation, while further handicapping urban residents into adulthood