The aim of this study is to examine how students at disadvantaged schools in Costa Rica experience and cope with the educational transition between 6th and 7th grade. Furthermore, to analyse which are the major contributing factors and how to aid this passage for students at risk through the term, Lifelong learning. This study will be conducted through an analysis of Costa Rica’s contemporary education policy documents through OECD’s educational report (2017). Thereafter the empirical data will be collected from seven semi-structured, qualitative interviews. Central findings shows that the school should provide more individual attention, equal career counselling in primary schools, start earlier with topics concerning identity and more engaging with parents or persons that are responsible. / Minor Field Studies

Annually in the United States, over one million students do not complete high school. Furthermore, more than 80% of those students fall behind at the beginning of Grade 9, leaving behind costs for society, including relying upon public assistance (Hughes et al., 2018; Letgers and Balfanz, 2010). Gaining a proper education is essential for children, determining a child's adult life, including higher earning potential, improved health, and a longer lifespan (Hahn and Truman, 2015; McKee and Caldarella, 2016). To conduct this study, the researcher used a qualitative methodology exploring the perceptions of eight returning adult education students between the ages of 18 and 24 in one Virginia school division. The researcher conducted one-on-one interviews to determine the participants' perceptions of why they dropped out of high school and the rationale, and why they returned to an adult education program to continue their education. Findings from this study showed that returning adult education students experience a variety of life experiences and rationale when making the decision to drop out of school prior to earning a high school diploma or GED credential. The findings identified from the collected data in this study resulted in five implications for school personnel. School personnel must equip the parent(s) and the student(s) with strategies and resources that will help high school students maintain overall school success, both now and in the future. Those strategies and resources should be geared towards helping identifying students who are at risk of becoming high school dropouts. / Doctor of Education / Gaining a proper education is essential for children, determining a child's adult life, including higher earning potential, improved health, and a longer lifespan (Hahn and Truman, 2015; McKee and Caldarella, 2016). The decision to dropout of school is linked to adverse individual and social consequences (Lee-St. John et al., 2018). Students who fail to graduate from high school experience health issues and a poorer quality of life (Letgers and Balfanz, 2010). To conduct this study, the researcher used a qualitative methodology exploring the perceptions of eight returning adult education students between the ages of 18 and 24. The researcher conducted one-on-one interviews to determine the participants' perceptions of why they dropped out of high school and the rationale, and why they returned to an adult education program to continue their education. Findings from this study showed that returning adult education students experience a variety of life experiences and rationale when making the decision to drop out of school prior to earning a high school diploma or GED credential. The findings identified from the collected data in this study resulted in five implications for school personnel. School personnel must equip the parent(s) and the student(s) with strategies and resources that will help high school students maintain overall school success, both now and in the future. Those strategies and resources should be geared towards helping identifying students who are at risk of becoming high school dropouts.

The aim of this study is to examine how students at disadvantaged schools in Costa Rica experience and cope with the educational transition between 6th and 7th grade. Furthermore, to analyse which are the major contributing factors and how to aid this passage for students at risk through the term, Lifelong learning. This study will be conducted through an analysis of Costa Rica’s contemporary education policy documents through OECD’s educational report (2017). Thereafter the empirical data will be collected from seven semi-structured, qualitative interviews. Central findings shows that the school should provide more individual attention, equal career counselling in primary schools, start earlier with topics concerning identity and more engaging with parents or persons that are responsible.

The overall aim of this study has been to deepen the understanding of the phenomenon ofboy’s school dropout and whether there are other explanations than sociological ones. Thestudy has focused on what students and teachers perceive as factors for success and failure inschool and if there are gender differences. Furthermore,the study has targeted students andteacher's perceptions of pedagogical structure design on teaching and examination forms. Themethod has been mixed; both qualitative and quantitative with an abductive approach -discovery logic and hypothesis testing. The empirical data of the study consists of two parts, aqualitative one with four teacher interviews and a mixed one - both qualitative andquantitative - with 100 student questionnaires. The theory was critical and based on Bernsteinwho stated that school has its own acoustics. This study has confirmed Bernstein’s theory ofpedagogy and his concept of grammar. The result showed that there are biological as well associological explanations related to success or failure in school. The results also showedsignificance in the gender difference between which form of teaching boys and girls prefer,girls prefer more than boys to read and write. According to the interview responses of theteachers the result was that boys are more immature and practical than girls, who are moretheoretical. Boys seem to also have a larger memory while girls think a step further.Furthermore, the results showed that girls struggle more and are better at analyzing, boys putthemselves lower and settle for a passing grade. Boys are not as literate as girls and there is adifference between the sexes.It has also emerged in the study that girls are treated differently.

The purpose of this study was to create and test two series of predictive models aimed at projecting high school graduation status. Secondary data were obtained in partnership with an urban school district. All of the predictor variables included in the models tested in this study were academic and nonacademic variables that were found to be significant predictors of high school graduation in previous empirical work. In the first series of models tested, individual academic and nonacademic variables were tested together along with school-level variables. Eighth and ninth grade variables were tested separately to avoid multicollinearity issues. The second series of models tested included similar individual-level academic and nonacademic variables, along with community-level predictors to analyze their ability to predict high school graduation status. Logistic regression and multilevel logistic regression analyses were conducted to analyze the data. The model including community-level predictors yielded a pseudo R-squared value of .40, approximating that 40% of the variance was explained by the predictors in the model. Most of the individual predictors included in the models yielded findings similar to those found in previous literature on high school graduation status projection; however, this was not true for all of the predictor variables included. These differences highlight the tension that can exist between generalizability and local specificity. Significant findings from studies utilizing large nationally-representative longitudinal datasets and other large data sources do not always generalize to settings with samples that differ demographically. This study represents a first step in a line of research aimed at developing a better understanding of high school graduation status, particularly in challenging school contexts.

Les recherches qui se sont intéressées à l'étude du décrochage scolaire ont conduit à considérer l'abandon des études comme un processus qui s'inscrit à moyen ou long terme dans un parcours jalonné de nombreuses difficultés tant sur le plan personnel, que familial et scolaire (Ministère de l'Éducation nationale, 2012). Ces facteurs fragilisent la scolarité des élèves, en particulier celle des garçons qui montrent en général plus de problèmes d'adaptation à l'école que les filles (Royer, 2010). Plus récemment, les études prenant en considération les facteurs psychologiques ont mis en évidence la pertinence d'une approche préventive plus individualisée, ciblée sur l'expérience scolaire des élèves. L'objectif de cette thèse était d'analyser à partir d'une méthodologie quantitative l'influence de l'estime de soi, de la motivation scolaire et de la dépression sur le risque de décrochage scolaire auprès d'un échantillon de 265 élèves scolarisés au collège et au lycée dans des filières générales. Dans un premier temps, nous avons étudié ces facteurs en fonction du sexe et de l'âge des élèves en prenant en compte la complexité des dimensions étudiées (Gurtner, Gorga, Monnard et Ntamakiliro, 2001 ; Harter, 1988 ). Les résultats que nous avons obtenus vont dans le sens du regard généralement porté sur ces dimensions, à savoir que les filles sont plus motivées et plus engagées dans leur scolarité, qu'elles présentent plus d'états dépressifs, alors que les garçons ont une meilleure estime d'eux-mêmes. Ils montrent également que plus les élèves sont âgés, moins ils sont motivés et plus ils présentent de risque de décrochage scolaire. Dans un second temps, nous nous sommes intéressés à l'influence des ces facteurs sur le risque de décrochage scolaire. Nous avons notamment montré le rôle médiateur de la dépression dans le lien entretenu entre l'estime de soi dans le domaine de la moralité et des conduites et l'état d'anxiété envers les mathématiques et le français avec le risque de décrochage scolaire. Plus spécifiquement, nous avons pu mettre en évidence que ce rôle joué par la dépression était d'autant plus important concernant les garçons, faisant de la détresse psychologique un facteur de risque incontournable dans le processus d'abandon scolaire des adolescents (Quiroga, Janosz et Marcotte, 2006). Ce travail de thèse confirme l'importance de s'attacher aux facteurs de risque personnels dans la compréhension des processus pouvant conduire un élève à rompre le lien avec l'école. Il montre également que cette question est centrale pour les garçons puisque ces derniers montreraient plus de difficultés d'ordre psychologique les conduisant à présenter plus de risque de décrochage scolaire que les filles. / Research on school drop-out has led to consider early school leaving as a medium- or long-term process down a path marked with numerous difficulties, as much on a personal and family level as educational (French Ministry of Education, 2012). These factors make a student's school éducation vulnerable, particularly for boys who generally experience more difficulty adapting to school than girls do (Royer, 2010). More recently, studies including psychological factors have pointed out the relevance of a more personalised préventive approach, based on the student's own educational experience. The goal of this thesis was to analyse the influence of self-esteem, academic motivation and dépression on the risk of dropping out, using quantitative methods on a sample of 265 middle- and high-school students in the general sector. First of all, we studied the above factors of self-esteem, academic motivation and dépression in relation to the sex and age of the students, taking into account the complexity of these three dimensions (Gurtner, Gorga, Monnard et Ntamakiliro, 2001 ; Harter, 1988 ). The results obtained correspond to the commonly held viewpoint that girls are more motivated and committed to their education and manifest more dépressive states than boys, while boys have a higher self-esteem. The results also show that the older students are, the less they are motivated and therefore more likely to drop out. Secondly, we studied the influence of these factors on the risk of drop-out. In particular, we pointed out the mediating role of depression in the established link between self-esteem in the area of morality and behavior and that of a state of anxiety towards maths and French with a risk of dropping out. More specifically, the study revealed that this same role played by depression is even more determinant for boys, making psychological distress an essential risk factor in the process of teenage dropout (Quiroga, Janosz et Marcotte, 2006). The research and analysis carried out for this thesis confirm the importance of focusing on the personal risk factors in order to understand the process that could lead a student to disconnect from school. It also shows that these personal factors become the central question for boys, since unlike girls, they seem to demonstrate more difficulties of a psychological order, creating a higher risk of dropout.

Orientador: Felipe Ziotti [UNES] Narita / Resumo: A ideia de educação em tempo integral adquire cada vez mais força à medida que as políticas públicas educacionais norteadoras do processo são desenvolvidas. Entretanto, para que a educação em tempo integral ocorra, são necessárias medidas e políticas que proporcionem uma execução coerente com a realidade dos alunos e da comunidade escolar em que o projeto se insere. Um problema recorrente na educação convencional é evasão na transição do Ensino Fundamental ao Ensino Médio, desencadeada por diversos motivos como, por exemplo, a necessidade de entrar para o mercado de trabalho. Diante dessa realidade escolar, mais um desafio se desenrola na implantação do ensino em tempo integral nas escolas brasileiras: a manutenção do aluno carente de Ensino Médio nesta modalidade, sendo, portanto, necessárias pesquisas e políticas que abordem o tema. Como recorte e amostragem da pesquisa, a análise fará um estudo da proposta do Estado de São Paulo, designada Programa Ensino Integral (PEI), tendo como lócus de investigação uma escola do programa localizada na periferia de São João da Boa Vista (município do interior de São Paulo). A implantação do projeto nesta unidade está em andamento, uma vez que a unidade aderiu ao Programa Ensino Integral em 2015, tendo iniciado suas atividades em 2016. Nesta pesquisa, realizamos um levantamento das políticas públicas educacionais norteadoras do processo de implantação da escola de tempo de integral, bem como a análise da implantação desta política do Es... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Mestre

O fluxo escolar brasileiro representa um problema crônico para o caso do Ensino Médio do país. A literatura mostra que o retorno do investimento escolar é atrativo no país, tanto por apresentar uma taxa média alta, como pelo fato de que o adicional de salário devido aos níveis educacionais mais altos são maiores do que nos estágios iniciais da educação, i.e., o retorno educacional brasileiro aparenta ser crescente e convexo, diferente do que se apresenta na literatura internacional. A explicação usual para a evasão se dá através das restrições orçamentárias e de crédito enfrentadas pelas famílias que, sendo restritas no acesso ao crédito, poderia fazer com que o jovem saísse da escola precocemente, mesmo que o aluno esperasse um salário futuro maior. Somado a este retorno atrativo da educação, o país expandiu abruptamente os gastos educacionais. Porém, apesar da expansão, a escolaridade e as medidas de fluxo no país não reagiram proporcionalmente, despertando, assim, a atenção da literatura para explicação desse puzzle. A despeito destes fatos, a literatura internacional avançou no sentido de mostrar dois fatos que auxiliam na investigação dessa questão: em primeiro lugar, o retorno da educação pode variar entre indivíduos, ainda que a média seja alta. Por exemplo, indivíduos com maior aptidão podem ser os que se beneficiam mais de uma escolaridade maior, explicando o motivo de alguns abandonarem a escola. Em segundo lugar, a literatura avançou em mostrar que um fator importante na previsão de resultados escolares são habilidades não-cognitivas, como as habilidades socioemocionais. Portanto, este presente trabalho buscou explorar uma coleta de dados realizada em Sertãozinho - SP, em 2008, 2012 e 2017, em que estão disponíveis dados socioemocionais dos estudantes, além de dados demográficos e cognitivos, de estudantes que estavam no segundo ano do Ensino Fundamental em 2008, e em 2017 idealmente estariam no Ensino Médio, possibilitando investigar se existe uma associação entre características socioemocionais e o fluxo escolar. Os resultados indicam que tais fatores têm poder preditivo relevante na explicação do fluxo escolar brasileiro, medidos pela probabilidade de os indivíduos permanecerem estudando e pela probabilidade de se atingir o Ensino Médio em 2017, sendo que a Conscienciosidade e a Amabilidade do estudante aumentam a chance do aluno persistir estudando, enquanto que a Extroversão reduz essa probabilidade, em linha com algumas evidências da literatura. Os resultados trazem como contribuição uma evidência empírica inicial acerca da associação entre habilidades não-cognitivas e o fluxo escolar brasileiro. / The Brazilian school flow represents a chronic problem for the country\'s high school case. The literature shows that the return on school investment is attractive in the country, both for having a high average rate, and for the fact that the additional salary due to higher education levels is higher than in the early stages of education, ie, The Brazilian educational return appears to be growing and convex, different from what is presented in the international literature. The usual explanation for avoidance is through budget and credit constraints faced by families who, being restricted in access to credit, could cause the young person to leave school early, even if the student expects a larger future salary. Added to this attractive return of education, the country abruptly expanded educational spending. However, despite the expansion, the schooling and flow measures in the country did not react proportionally, thus awakening the attention of the literature to explain this textit puzzle. In spite of these facts, the international literature has advanced to show two facts that help in the investigation of this question: firstly, the return of education can vary among individuals, even if the average is high. For example, individuals with higher aptitude may be those who benefit most from higher schooling, explaining why some drop out of school. Second, the literature has advanced in showing that an important factor in predicting school outcomes are non-cognitive skills, such as social-emotional skills. Therefore, this study aimed to explore a data collection held in Sertãozinho - SP, in 2008, 2012 and 2017, in which are available socioemotional data of the students, as well as demographic and cognitive data, of students who were in the second year of Elementary Education in 2008, and by 2017 would ideally be in High School, making it possible to investigate if there is an association between socioemotional characteristics and the school flow. The results indicate that such factors have a relevant predictive power in the explanation of the Brazilian school flow, measured by the probability of individuals remaining studying and by the probability of reaching high school in 2017, and the student\'s Conscientiousness and Kindness increase the chance of while the Extroversion reduces this probability, in line with some evidence in the literature. The results contribute as an initial empirical evidence about the association between non-cognitive abilities and the Brazilian school flow.

The purpose of this study was to compare scores students received on the eighth grade EXPLORE test in math and English to scores received in English 9 and Algebra I on both the End-of-Course (EOC) test and the final average in those courses. These scores were taken from a rural East Tennessee High School and the middle schools that feed into the high school. Data were collected over a 2-year period (2012 – 2014). Students who had a score in eighth grade and a corresponding score in ninth grade were included. All others were omitted. A series of Pearson correlations were conducted between EXPLORE scores in Math and English with final averages in English 9 and Algebra I and EOC scores in English 9 and Algebra I. An independent samples t test was conducted to determine whether the mean scores on the EXPLORE English and math test, mean scores for English 9 and Algebra I final averages and mean scores for EOC exams in English 9 and Algebra 1 differ between female and male students. Based on the findings of this study, the score received on the eighth grade EXPLORE in English has a strong positive correlation to the score received on the English 9 EOC and the final average in English 9. The same was true for the score on the EXPLORE in math, it also had a strong positive correlation to the score received on the Algebra I EOC and the final average in Algebra I. Additionally gender has an impact upon English 9 final averages, English 9 EOC scores, Algebra I final averages and EXPLORE scores in English, with female students scoring higher than male students in those categories. Conversely gender did not have an effect on Algebra I EOC scores or EXPLORE scores in math.

Forced truancy is a risk factor that influences juvenile behavior, requiring the joint efforts of school authorities, parents, and courts to address. It is a phenomenon where students desire attending school, but for reasons beyond their control, they are prohibited from attending classes. Some of these reasons are teachers' strike action, students' poverty, lack of educational infrastructures, and unsafe educational environment. Teachers' strike is a frequent occurrence in southeastern Nigeria caused by irregular payment of teachers' wages, benefits, and other remunerations. This case study of 3 secondary schools in southeastern Nigeria sought to understand the impact of forced truancy by examining the relationship between forced truancy and youth delinquency. Although previous studies have explored the causes of truancy, few studies have addressed the effect of forced truancy created by incessant teachers' strike. The theoretical framework that guided this study included Hirschi's social bond theory and Merton's social structure. Case studies were developed using data from the participants and review of documents. A maximum variation method was used for data collection through semi-structured that resulted in a review of archival records and open-ended interviews with students (S = 9), teachers (T = 8), and principals (SP = 4). Descriptive case analysis were used to identify common themes and patterns using constant comparative techniques. Implications for positive social change include identifying areas that need improvement and recommending to legislators and education policy makers for the best approach to addressing the problem, where it has the potential to eliminate teachers' strike, reduce youth truancy, and improve student's academic performance.