HIGH DROPOUT RATES OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS IN THE DISTRICT OF
GREATER MUMBAI AND THE STUDENT SUPPORT PRACTICES
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High Dropout Rates of High School Students in the District of Greater Mumbai and the
Student Support Practices
Madhu Smita
IX540 Research Methods, Human and Behavioral Sciences
Purdue University Global
HIGH DROPOUT RATES OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS IN THE DISTRICT
OF GREATER MUMBAI AND THE STUDENT SUPPORT PRACTICES
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High Dropout Rates of High School Students in the District of Greater Mumbai and
the Student Support Practices
Prioritizing Institutional Culture: Proposing the PUEDES Approach to Understand and
Respond to the Dropout Crisis
RODRÍGUEZ (2014) in his causal-comparative study, “Prioritizing Institutional Culture:
Proposing the PUEDES Approach to Understand and Respond to the Dropout Crisis”, has
proposed a conceptually rigorous framework to understand the role that school culture plays in
reducing and resisting dropouts. The author has studied the traditional approach to understanding
the dropout predictors and has tried to identify the gaps in these studies that result in a limited
understanding of dropout predictors.
The interactive nature of PUEDES not only centralizes the role of institutional culture but
also provides depth and complexity that stakeholders can understand and respond through
solutions, that are relevant and practical (Rodriguez, 2013). This research applies to my study as
school culture is one of my predictors of student engagement and this study helps demonstrate
how school culture is an important aspect of student engagement.
Dropping Out of Middle School: A Multilevel Analysis of Students and Schools. American
Educational Research Journal.
This research by Rumberger (1995), focuses on the areas neglected by traditional
researches, for example, very few research focuses on differentiating between the structural
independent variables like socio-economic background and ethnicity and the dependent variables
like academic achievement and school engagement. Similarly, most of the studies do not take
HIGH DROPOUT RATES OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS IN THE DISTRICT
OF GREATER MUMBAI AND THE STUDENT SUPPORT PRACTICES
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into account the students who completed middle school but failed to enroll in high school or
complete the first year of school. More often than not, the studies end up pointing out individual
reasons for school dropouts but fail to highlight or identify the underlying reasons for it.
Rumberger, in his study, has tried to come up with a conceptually sound research-based model
that will take into account these missing aspects of student disengagement. This study is looking
at both the qualitative and quantitative data of previous researches to evaluate the reasons for
dropout at an individual level and the school level. Hence, he focuses on the following research
questions:
What are the factors that explain differences in dropout rates among individuals?
What are the factors that explain differences in dropout rates among schools?
“The purpose of this research is to identify the characteristics or features of schools that
influence school-level dropout rates, again focusing on those factors that could be altered
through changes in policy or practice” (Rumberger, 1995, p. 586).
This study is relevant for my research as it will give me a framework to work within,
even though the context and demographics of my study are different, there is a lot of similarity in
human behavior and how they respond to various external stimuli. I can use these responses to
map out the behavioral aspects and responses of my test subjects.
Structuring Failure and Success: Understanding the Variability in Latino School
Engagement
Conchas (2001) qualitative case study referenced here is a part of a larger comparative
study that looks at the academic experiences of the racial and ethnic minority students at an
urban high school. The focus of this study is students’ perspective about the institutions
HIGH DROPOUT RATES OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS IN THE DISTRICT
OF GREATER MUMBAI AND THE STUDENT SUPPORT PRACTICES
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processes that relates to their academic engagement and motivation. The data for this was
collected over the period of two years through participants’ observation. The results of this
study supports the theory that the “simultaneous interplay” of structure, culture and agency is the
most effective predictor of school engagement and academic success (Conchas, 2001).
Migrants in the Indian Urban centers face similar discriminations as the low income
voluntary/involuntary minorities in the US. Most of the students are children of migrants from
different states looking for a better life. The children of these migrants account for a major
percent of students at the public schools of Greater Mumbai. This study supports my hypothesis
that the instructional mechanism affects school engagement for minority students and providing
social scaffolding to low-achieving students will help them attain socializing skills necessary for
achieving academic success.
HIGH DROPOUT RATES OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS IN THE DISTRICT
OF GREATER MUMBAI AND THE STUDENT SUPPORT PRACTICES
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References
American Psychological Association. (2002). Ethical principles of psychologists and code of
conduct (amended effective June 1, 2010, and January 1, 2017).
http://www.apa.org.libauth.purdueglobal.edu/ethics/code/index.html
Conchas, G. Q. (2001). Structuring failure and success: Understanding the variability in Latino
school engagement. Harvard Educational Review, 71(3), 475–504.
https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.71.3.280w814v1603473k
Freeman, J., Simonsen, B., McCoach, D. B., Sugai, G., Lombardi, A., & Horner, R. (2015). An
analysis of the relationship between implementation of school-wide positive behavior
interventions and supports and high school dropout rates. The High School Journal,
98(4), 290–315. https://doi.org/10.1353/hsj.2015.0009
RODRÍGUEZ, L. (2014). CHAPTER TWO: Prioritizing Institutional Culture: Proposing the
PUEDES Approach to Understand and Respond to the Dropout Crisis. In Counterpoints
(Vol. 457, pp. 15–38). Peter Lang. http://www.jstor.org/stable/42982229
Rumberger, R. W. (1995). Dropping out of middle school: A multilevel analysis of students and
schools. American Educational Research Journal, 32(3), 583–625.
https://doi.org/10.2307/1163325