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Encyclopedia of Adolescence pp 1–10Cite as

Academic Achievement: Contextual Influences

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Overview

Academic achievement subsumes a number of indicators to measure cognitive gains and progression through the US educational system. Regardless of the operationalization, the link between academic achievement and later life prospects is well established in the extant literature. Adolescents who earn poorer grades in school are more likely to be retained in grade, to fall behind in credit accrual, and to earn lower achievement test scores, all of which are associated with lower high school completion rates and higher dropout rates (Battin-Pearson et al. 2000; Fall and Roberts 2012). High school dropouts, in turn, have lower household incomes, lower occupational status, difficulty finding and maintaining employment, higher incarceration rates, and greater morbidity and mortality rates, all of which cost society in terms of lost tax revenue and increased reliance on governmental social services (Elo 2009; Rumberger 2001; Snyder and Dillow 2015). Although academic achievement is...

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  1. Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station A2702, Austin, TX, 78712, USA

    Aprile D. Benner

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    Roger J.R. Levesque

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Benner, A.D. (2016). Academic Achievement: Contextual Influences. In: Levesque, R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Adolescence. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32132-5_286-2

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