High school students come to school with notions on who they think they are and what they are capable of doing from their home environment. Through socialization in their communities students set expectations for their lives from the messages they get from home. High school students often have pressures from their peers to define their educational status. Peer pressure can motivate students to stay in school and to graduate, but they can also influence them to drop out of school.
What pressures to High school students face outside of the classroom? Students often come to school and are face with many options. A typical High School students has to balance a social life, extracurricular activities and a part time job. High schoolers do not have the time to focus their attentions on their school work alone. This pulls from the full attention being place on educational material being taught. Educators must send the message to students an unmistakable message that academic achievement is the students' number one priority, the most important thing in their lives. (Hampel) Teachers may not insist that students work to their full potential for a variety of reasons, including protecting them from failure. They may offer challenging work but undercut their own expectations by offering students an easy way out. (Le Gall) A study by Good & Brophy indicated the differences toward students perceived to be low achievers:.
• providing general, often insincere praise;.
• providing them with less feedback;.
• demanding less effort;.
• interrupting low achievers more often;.
• seating them farther away from the teacher;.
• paying less attention to them;.
• calling on them less often.
• waiting less time for them to respond to questions;.
• criticizing them more often for failure; and.
• smiling at them less or giving them fewer other nonverbal indicators of support.