ABSTRACT
This chapter reports the findings of an ethnographic study of lower socioeconomic status (SES) second-generation Puerto Rican adolescents in New York City who dropped out of school and subsequently participated in an alternative high school equivalency diploma program. It conveys, in the Hispanic adolescents' own words, their experiences and attitudes toward schooling and the reasons they dropped out and subsequently re-enrolled in the high school equivalency course. The theoretical framework of this study situates schooling within the context of the larger society of which it is a component. Following the model of the school as a social system described in the ethnographies of Lacey, Rist, and Ogbu, this study seeks to describe the patterns of expectations for adolescent behavior in several social contexts: the home, the street, the workplace, and the school. The students generally expressed annoyance at being treated as kids in their previous high schools, while carrying the responsibilities of adults outside school.
