This study was designed to explore the meaning of disengagement from school as experienced by those who left school before graduating. Data for the study was gathered using an unstructured interview format. The research produced authentic narrative accounts of the meaning of disengagement for the individual participants. A cross case comparison of these narratives indicated the presence of three common streams of movement. As children, each of the participants were involved in an escalating cumulation of problems which over time, increased in scope and intensity. Their personal vulnerabilities generated through a troubled background, when coupled with the more complex demands of the secondary system, translated into an increased school maladjustment. The third movement involved a crystallizing of previous experiences and attitudes and an engulfment in a spoiled identity. The stories collected indicated that a comprehensive theory of disengagement must be built on a holistic perspective. Beyond the events, experiences, and circumstances that contribute to a disengagement process, questions of individual interpretation and meaning must also be considered. Finally, the thesis raises questions about the relationship of school practices and dropout experiences.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1999. / Bibliography: leaves 74-80.

This study was designed to explore the meaning of disengagement from school as experienced by those who left school before graduating. Data for the study was gathered using an unstructured interview format. The research produced authentic narrative accounts of the meaning of disengagement for the individual participants. A cross case comparison of these narratives indicated the presence of three common streams of movement. As children, each of the participants were involved in an escalating cumulation of problems which over time, increased in scope and intensity. Their personal vulnerabilities generated through a troubled background, when coupled with the more complex demands of the secondary system, translated into an increased school maladjustment. The third movement involved a crystallizing of previous experiences and attitudes and an engulfment in a spoiled identity. The stories collected indicated that a comprehensive theory of disengagement must be built on a holistic perspective. Beyond the events, experiences, and circumstances that contribute to a disengagement process, questions of individual interpretation and meaning must also be considered. Finally, the thesis raises questions about the relationship of school practices and dropout experiences. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

Research has reported that a predictive link exists between socio-economic risk factors and high school dropouts, including teen-aged parents. Educators have little control over socio-economic risk factors. However, school records and classroom performance data can point to in-school risk factors. The purpose of this study was to help all students by using the in-school data to pinpoint the indicators that predict potential student achievement difficulties in specific areas of curricula. This study was an anteriospective longitudinal study of the 1995 graduating class of a suburban school district composed of approximately 920 seniors. The sample consisted of 344 graduates, 114 dropouts, and 42 teenaged parents. Backward stepwise logistic regression analysis was the statistical method used for model building. An analysis was done by gender at the 2nd, 4th, 6th, and 8th grades from the permanent records of sample students. The study found that significant predictors exist at each grade level and are different for each group, grade level, and gender with some predictors in common: language arts and attendance. The most consistent male dropout predictors were found to be absenteeism, grades in language arts, spelling, and achievement test scores in language arts. The most consistent female dropout predictors were found to be absenteeism, elementary retention, course failures, and achievement test scores in language arts. Achievement test scores in language arts were found to be the most important in-school predictors for teen-aged parents. The predictors for teenaged parents followed the same pattern as female dropouts and graduates until the 8th grade where achievement test scores in vocabulary, math, and total battery became important predictors. Teen-aged parents were found to be a sub-population of dropouts or graduates. Teen-aged parents dropped out or graduated from school based on the early predictors of dropouts or graduates, not based on parenting or single status.

The 1950 Census of Florida shows that only 24.3 per cent of all white residents of the state twenty-five years of age and over had completed high school. A study made by Marshall of the 1952 class at Leon County High School, Tallahassee, Florida, disclosed that 77.1 per cent of the students who entered the seventh grade in 1946 for the first time continued to graduation or one year after class had graduated. This is a higher percentage of graduating students than in many other high schools of the state. It is assumed desirable to have these young people stay in school the allotted time and to provide for them an educational program appropriate to their needs and to the needs of the society in which they live. Drop-outs, for one reason or another, are being thrust into an adult world to face adult problems before they have successfully coped with the problems of teenagers. / Typescript. / "May, 1956." / "Submitted to the Graduate Council of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts." / Advisor: Edward K. Hankin, Professor Directing Paper. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 39-40).

Qualitative research was used to get the perspectives of high school dropouts about their lives as nonparticipants in adult education. The research problem addressed in the study was the lack of information from high school dropouts themselves about their life experiences. The purpose was to have high school dropout nonparticipants express their views. The particular research method used was case study.Interviews were held with 15 high school dropouts who had been out of school at least five years. Three one-hour interviews were held with each respondent. Each interview had a particular focus. The first focused on the respondent's family and school experiences until the time of dropout. The second focused on present life experiences. The third focused on plans for the future, including possible participation in adult education.The respondents were selected from the dropout population with members being multi-age, multi-ethnic, of both genders, and from various localities within a community of approximately 200,000. The respondents were selected through the researcher's personal knowledge of dropouts who had not participated in further education; names provided by a relative and two acquaintances of the researcher; and names given by other respondents.The three interviews resulted in 13 categories of information. Categories included the following data: demographic, family, support people, education, employment, and future plans.Five of the 15 respondents saw no reason to become involved in adult education. One would become involved only if current employment ceased. Seven planned to enroll in adult education classes in the near future. Two planned to enroll when current obstacles were overcome.Reasons given for future enrollment in adult education resulted in three categories, with five respondents naming more than one reason. The reason self-satisfaction was given by six respondents. Job change was named by eight. Returning as an example for their children was the reason given by four respondents.Respondents seemed content with their lives. They enjoyed sharing their thoughts.The results of the study represent only this study. The reported protocol for data collection, the narrative, and the analysis of data enable replication of the methods used in the research. / Department of Educational Leadership

Research into current literature regarding black dropouts and black at-risk students indicated that there were many reasons cited by writers as to why these students have failed or succeeded in academic settings. However, writers cited two major reasons for the lack of academic success at the high school level. These reasons were socioeconomic status and race, with demographics listed as a close third. The need existed for analytical identification of the variables which affected these minority students and the specific strategies required to assure their educational success. The purpose of this study was to identify the variables that are characteristic of black high school dropouts and compile a list of variables which would sort into a taxonomy made up of several categories. A Parallel Pairs Model was developed to sort and classify the multiplicity of variables found in some of the educational programs and situations that were researched. The model established three categories into which the reasons that black students dropout, could be sorted. The differentiations depicted by the categories of the model help to identify systems and approaches to improve the education of these students. An auxiliary objective of this study was to draft a program evaluation strategy that could be implemented once unique variables wore no longer ambiguous. Essential recommendations suggested by this study are threefold. The relationship between the dropout rate and the economic system becomes essential in policy making about education, e.g., funding should be equitably allocated. Redesigning academic strategies to accommodate all students becomes the primary focus of all school districts, e.g., adjust schools to the learners. The application of a taxonomy, as developed in this study, is advantageous as a checklist or diagnostic tool. Usage suggests valuative and preventive techniques.

The problem of this study was to determine the relationship between dropout rates of the high schools of Arkansas and certain school practices.

M.A. / South Africa is facing a high rate of children in need of care due to high escalation of the HIV/AIDS related illness. The children are being left without biological parents, and they are eventually placed in the foster care custody of their extended families. Sometimes there are challenges that are experienced by the foster parents and the adolescents’ foster children, as a result the adolescents’ foster children end up leaving school. Foster care learners who stay away from school or who have been entered on the register then absent themselves for substantial parts of the day, are more likely to grow up unhappy and unfulfilled, leaving school much less qualified than they might otherwise be and worst of all sometimes get drawn into a life of crime(Collins, 1998). The overall aim of this study is to explore the factors that contribute to adolescent foster children not completing their high school education and developing strategies to retain adolescents’ foster children in school. Placing the adolescents’ foster children into institutions like industrial schools and children’s homes hoping that the children’s behavior will change should be considered as the last resort that the professionals should do. The objectives of the study are: § To survey literature on foster care education, § To analyse the scope of the concept” foster care” in terms of current practice, § To investigate problems that are encountered by the foster parents and how do they deal with the teenagers’ problems, § To investigate the problems encountered by the teenagers or adolescents foster children , and also identify their unmet needs, § To investigate the problems encountered by the foster children while still at school, § To identify challenges of educators towards foster care learners. iii Qualitative research methodology was applied with the researcher selecting participatory action research to engage adolescents’ foster children, foster parents and educators in the study. The study was exploratory and qualitative in nature. Focus groups were utilized as the method of information gathering. The focus group was conducted with adolescent foster children, foster parents and educators. The focus group sessions with the children comprised of ten adolescent foster children that did not complete their high school education. The focus group session with the foster parents comprised of ten parents caring for adolescent foster children who left school. The focus group with the educators comprised of six educators who taught foster children, three educators were from each of the two high schools in Naledi, Soweto. The foster children and foster parents were recruited from the researcher’s case load in Soweto.

Recent literature on high school graduation and drop out have shifted the focus from identifying causes of drop out to identifying students who are at risk of dropping out. The Early Warning Systems (EWS) used to identify students seek to use existing data to predict which students have a greater risk of dropping out of school so that schools can intervene early enough to reengage students. Despite widespread attention to individual indicators, there is no defined system of indicators proven to be generalizable across grade levels, specifically at the elementary grade levels. Drawing on the tenets of Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) Ecological Systems Theory, the purpose of this quantitative research study was to determine to what extent the State of Florida’s EWS model can predict on-time cohort graduation in grades 3-8. Using a retrospective longitudinal sample, this study first established that Allensworth and Easton’s (2005) grade 9 on-track indicator was predictive of dropout, finding that 92.2% of students who were on-track in grade 9 graduated on time. Using this grade 9 indicator as a proxy for graduation, this study then examined the effectiveness of the Florida EWS at predicting on-track status. Through this a priori link to graduation, this study was able to shed light on predictive indicators in the elementary and middle school years without the temporal distance between the predictor grade levels and graduation typically associated with longitudinal studies of this nature. The findings that the Florida EWS successfully predicted 71.6% of future on- and off-track status confirms its use as a predictive indicator of students at risk of not graduating. The academic, behavioral, and engagement indicators found in both Allensworth & Easton’s (2005) grade 9 on-track indicator and the Florida EWS were found to successfully capture the molar activities of students within the school ecological system and were successful at providing an indication of a student’s development in terms of being on track to graduate on time from high school. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2018. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection