Educational second chance : a study of successful male college students who had formerly not completed high school

This IPA (Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis) study was used to gain a better understanding of how men who are HSNCs (high school non-completers) view their success in college. Males were the focus because they have more educational difficulties. They have lower grades, graduation and college acceptance rates, higher rates of suspensions, high school noncompletion, violent crime, truancy, vandalism, early sexual activity, incarceration, as well as greater use of alcohol, tobacco, drugs, and welfare (Heckman, Humphries & Kautz, 2014). The average HSNC costs society about a half a million dollars in lost taxes and extra public services (Belfield & Levin, 2007). If an HSNC earns a college degree, they can expect life outcomes similar to any other college graduate. If not, their life outcomes are virtually indistinguishable from any other HSNC. Unfortunately, only about 1% of HSNCs earn a college degree (Heckman, Humphries & Kautz, 2014). Counting HSEC holders as high school graduates masks the true HSNC rate of students of color which has not improved in 50 years (Heckman & Kautz, 2014, p. 9; Heckman, Humphries & Kautz, 2014, p. xi-xii.) Mindset theory (Dweck, 2006), which is correlated with academic success, partially guided the interview questions and the data analysis. Six male HSNCs under 40 years of age. Most of the men reported developing more of a growth mindset than they had in high school. It was also found that motivating career goals that required higher education played an important role in their academic success. The career goals were described as being meaningful, achievable, income-producing, interesting, and socially respected. A number of internal cognitive-emotional skill supports were delineated such as a growth mindset, agency, maturity, and planfulness exhibited in grit, self-control and delayed gratification. External structural supports for academic success were academic flexibility, employment, social norms, mental health, and financial.