Running head: RESEARCH PROPOSAL PRESENTATION
High school students’ drop-out rate prevention: A research proposal based on an organization’s
theory of action
Nora El-Bilawi
EDEP 821
Dr. Jeff Gorrell
Spring 2010
Introduction
Overview
Organization’s theory of action. This research paper is an extended work on the theory of
action of Hopeworks, a non-profit organization.
The organization is trying to implement strong programs in order to reduce the high
school dropout rate for African-American and Hispanic youth in Camden, New Jersey. This
group of youth lacks an ambitious and positive overlook at their future; the organization wants to
create hope for the future, increase skills and guiding tools towards good-paying jobs, and
provide business development and educational opportunities for Camden's young youth between
the ages of 17 and 25 who have dropped out of school.
In Hopeworks’ mission statement, they claim to work on programs that hope to reduce
high school dropout rate especially among African-American and Hispanic students. However,
while surfing around the organization’s website and reading through their programs, I found that
they are focusing on providing those students with the technological tools that help them
compete in the job market, but nothing about identifying the cause of the problem for early
prevention procedures or the core strategies that this organization is providing to reduce the
dropout rate.
Problem. Existing dropout statistics paint a bleak picture for urban youth. The single year
dropout rate for urban districts is nearly twice the national average, with some urban districts
struggling with single year dropout rates as high as 20% (Education Centre, 1995). Also,
students from low socio-economic status (SES) drop out at six times the rate of those from highincome families’ status (NCES, 2000). In addition, income levels and dropout create a selfrepeating cycle since 52% of school dropouts become unemployed members of society or collect
welfare payments (Baldwin, Moffett & Lane, 1992). Worse, dropouts are 3.5 times more likely
to commit crimes in their lifetime than high school graduates, exacting an additional burden on
society from this problem (Alliance for Excellent Education, 2003).
According to Aronson & Steele (2005), teachers’ stereotyping of students’ academic
competence has a great influence on these students’ self-concept and self-esteem. “Intellectual
competence is not just something inside a person’s head; rather, it is the product of real or
imagined interactions with others” (Aronson & Steele, 2005). Consequently, students’ academic
achievement and/ or drop-out rate are influenced due to high or low received self-concept usually
delivered through teachers’ interactions.
Jermey Finn (1989), in his dropout proposal the “participation-identification model”,
describes students' identification with school, that low participation in school activities or early
school failure, as the source that leads to low self-esteem, problem behaviors, and then alienation
from school. In a later study (1993), he added that: “the likelihood that a youngster will
successfully complete 12 years of schooling is maximized if he or she maintains multiple,
expanding forms of participation in school-relevant activities”. Building on this idea, schools can
reduce dropout by encouraging multiple types of extracurricular opportunities for students and
insuring that all students can participate.
Purpose
The purpose of this research is to provide; first, a logical explanation of high school
students drop-out. Second, shed light on some research-based strategies that the organization can
integrate in their programs -this part will be found in the discussion of proposed strategies- in
order to reduce this demographics’ dropout rates.
This study investigates several individual-level approach as a leading path towards
cohesive basic-core strategy, focuses on only the effects of individual characteristics in
explaining academic achievement (Stewart, 2007).
Conceptual Framework
In order to target the first purpose of the research, I am going to frame this research
around theories like the internal attribution, social control, and ecological theory of human
development.
Internal attribution & social control theory. Among the most important factors found to
be associated with engagement and school success were two personality factors that have been
identified as important in child and adolescent development and function: self-esteem and locus
of control.
According to the self-esteem hypothesis (Weiner, 1985, 1992), African-American college
students absorb the external stereotyping and negativity to an internal level that lead them to
blame themselves for their lower outcomes and shaken self-esteem. In addition, “their attribution
to a stable factor lowers African American students’ expectancies for future outcomes and
decreases their motivation and performance” (van Laar, 2000).
Connell & Wellborn (1991) defines the internal locus of control in a sense that “one should
expect to succeed to the extent that one feels in control of one’s successes and failures”. They
also integrated control beliefs into a broader theoretical framework in which they proposed three
basic psychological needs: competence, autonomy, and relatedness. A person who believes that
he/she controls achievement and outcomes should feel more competent. Locus of control has
been known to be important for school success since the now-classic Coleman Report on
Equality of Educational Opportunity was published (Coleman et al., 1966). The report first noted
that an external locus of control (i.e., belief in luck, fate, and powerful others as governing one's
success) was related to lower academic achievement and higher rates of dropping out.
Although there is strong evidence that locus of control is associated with school success
(Kalechstein & Nowicki, 1997), as well as literally hundreds of other behavioral variables
studied since its introduction by Rotter (1966), most research on drop-out rates has generally
treated locus of control as a preexisting variable in adolescents. That is, locus of control is
measured and then correlated with other key variables such as school engagement, SES, and selfesteem.
Ecological theory of human development. This study draws upon Bronfenbrenner’s
(1979) ecological theory of human development. His theory provides a model of interrelated
social structures (e.g., self, family, peers, home, and school) and processes that influence
individual behavior. As Bronfenbrenner (1979) pointed out, children develop in a multitude of
social contexts. Moreover, the social context in which children operate influences their ability to
adjust to the expectations of school and learn how to become successful students (Wentzel,
1999). Ecological approach focuses on the combined effects of both individual- and school-level
characteristics in explaining academic achievement (Stewart, 2007).
For the limited time of this research, the conceptual framework and questions focus on
and investigate the individual reasons and self context that lead high school students to drop-out.
Research question
Hence, this research’s questions are:
1. What are some the individual reasons and/or characteristics that lead high school students to
drop-out? (To further enrich and investigate the body of literature).
2. What are some of the strategies to prevent this population’s drop-out rate? (propose to
organization)
Methodology
Design
According to Maxwell (2005), the design of this research is based on an interactive
model design; the design is interconnected to the various experiences, researches and personal
assumptions, goals, purposes, theories, and research questions. In other words, the above
mentioned purposes of the study determined the framework of the study and literature review
which consequently framed the research questions (Glesne, 2006).
My research’s goals and purposes seem to be directed toward a case study design. Case
studies typically explore bounded systems in order to gain understanding of people, situations,
events or programs and to explore the meaning for those involved (Merriam, 1998).
Participants
New Jersy’s inner-city Camden youth ages 14-23, both who are in school and those who
are not. They are mainly at-risk minority students who are African-American and Hispanic. This
group of youth lacks an ambitious and positive overlook at their future. The organization wants
to create hope for the future, increase skills and guiding tools towards good-paying jobs, and
provide business development and educational opportunities for Camden's young youth between
the ages of 17 and 25 who have dropped out of school.
Data Collection
Measures & Procedures
HSRB approval. Before conducting the research, permission from Human Subject
Review Board should be granted. Once I submitted the forms and received the approval I will
begin with the second step which is location permissions.
Prepare for the visit. The first step that I will start with is to contact the organization and explain
to them the purpose of my research and the objectives of the whole study. Then, I will set an
appointment with them to come and interview their student population. The interviews should
take around three- five days of individual interviewing. A copy of the interview questionnaire
will be provided to the organization’s board of directors to inform them with the nature of
questions.
Consent forms. I will email parental consent forms to the organization in order to inform
students’ parents with the research’s interviews that will take place at the organization. I will ask
the organization to give those to the students and collect parental signatures a couple of weeks
before proceeding with the interviewing process.
Interviews. These will be individual, open-ended, and semi-structured interviews; the
reason behind using such interviewing design is that it provides rich and unexpected findings,
preplanned questions and probes enable unknown but also systematic coverage, replicable and
consistent across interviewees, and provides precise answers. The interviews’ duration is 45
minutes per student. The questions will focus on some self-concept, self-esteem, and selfregulation aspects that may enable me to find the internal reasons behind these students’ dropout.
Data Analysis
Transcribing & coding
After I am done with the interviews, I will resume with transcribing the recorded tapes, clean-up
field notes, and then find common repeated themes between both. The steps will be specifically:
Reread, notice, collect, think. According to Maxwell (2005), I will start with the initial step in
analyzing data that is to reread the transcribed documents and memo logs in order to make a
deeper connection with the written material.
Organizational categories. Organizational categories will come as my next step after
rereading transcripts, noticing the data, and thinking and connecting ideas to generate data
material (Maxwell, 2005). I will need a familiar etic categorization system to guide me through
the data.
Discussion
In a typical situation, students from low SES and belong to minority groups to tend to
drop-out for many reasons and despite of these reasons’ variations, these students still need some
support to elevate and enhance their individual characteristics and internal self-concept.
In order to answer the second question, I will work on further research to extend a proposal of
basic-core strategies based on the social control theory to Hopeworks. Basic core strategies
promote opportunities for the student to form bonding relationships and include
mentoring/tutoring, service learning, alternative schooling, and out-of-school enhancement
programs. Lehr, Hansen, Sinclair, & Christenson (2003) categorized successful interventions as
follows:
•
Personal/affective (e.g., retreats designed to enhance self-esteem, regularly
scheduled classroom-based discussion, individual counseling, participation in an
interpersonal relations class);
•
Academic (e.g., provision of special academic courses, individualized
methods of instruction, tutoring);
•
Family outreach (e.g., strategies that include increased feedback to parents
or home visits);
•
School structure (e.g., implementation of school within a school, redefinition of the role of the homeroom teacher, reducing class size, creation of an
alternative school); and
•
Work related (e.g., vocational training, participation in volunteer or
service programs).
The most effective interventions to reduce the dropout rate and enhance school completion
address core issues associated with student alienation and disengagement from school. Helpful
interventions address underlying problems and teach students strategies and skills they can use to
successfully meet the academic, behavioral, and psychological demands of the school
environment.
References
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