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The Development of a Prevention Dropout for Secondary Student in an Urban High School Setting According to Noguera and Dimon (2003), the rate of dropout in American urban high schools may be the biggest but least known problem today. Noguera and Dimon estimated that at a great amount of schools 50 % and even more of the students who start their ninth grade leave it without graduation. [ 3 ]. Many researchers who work on this problem agree that there are many factors which contribute to the rate of dropouts at schools. Among these factors there are: alienating, impersonal, large environments; teaching, which is frequently experienced as boring, engaging, and unchallenging; difficulties to develop relationships with adults.
Evidently, urban high school settings need organizational and cultural reforms in order to reduce the dropout rate among students. Modern scientists proposed many experimental projects which address the malaise's of the American urban high schools. There are at least two types of such projects: they may be in-school and community-based. The effectiveness, achievements and innovations of the representatives of each kind - the Philadelphia-based Talent Development High School Model and the Boston Urban Youth Foundation - will be estimated in this paper. According to Letters, et al. (2002), the Philadelphia-based Talent Development High School Model is a promising research-based initiative. [ 5 ]. The Talent Development Model, it is an in-school program that focuses on structural changes in the educational process and the milieu.
Wesley C. Pugh noted about this project that its success was based on innovative approaches to curriculum and instruction utilizing academic coaches. [ 8 ]. The organizational structures of the Model were developed to produce a personalized learning environment. [ 8 ]. The Philadelphia-based Talent Development Model was founded in 1994. According to American Urban High School Reform: Talent Development the Philadelphia Story by Wesley C. Pugh, the Talent Development Model had the following innovations: specific changes in school organization and management; a strong, positive school climate for learning; curriculum and instructional innovations to transition all students into rigorous high school work especially in English and Mathematics. [ 8 ].
The Philadelphia-based Talent Development Model also emphasizes on parent and community involvement in students college development. To make the students progress more consistent and to prevent risk of dropouts the Model is provided with professional development systems of support. Wesley C. Pugh in the article American Urban High School Reform suggested the list of the major components of the Model.
They are the following: Ninth Grade Success Academy: a self-contained school within a school which is aimed to provide incoming ninth graders with a "double-dose" curriculum in English and Math to help the students to achieve an easy social and successful high school transition. Career Academies for upper grades Innovative Curriculum Instruction and Teacher Support: an academic "catch-up" process helps students with the learning opportunities. It also motivates, and supports those students who need it. As a result students are able to overcome poor prior preparation and thus they complete a core college prep curriculum successfully. Teacher Support: it is on-site and year-round. It takes place in the classroom, and in special small group content area workshops.
Extra Help for Students: Saturday School, Summer School, After-hours Credit School, and an alternative program -Twilight School- which offers small classes after school and extensive services where students work with support staff. [ 8 ]. The results of this project released by Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation evidence the improvement of the standardized test scores and the decrease of dropout rates at the school. [ 8 ]. Another project analyzed in this paper, the Boston Urban Youth Foundation (BUYF), BUYF, as many other community-based programs, understands the importance of the link between school and community and bases its activity on collaboration with school. BUYF - is a community-based organization that seeks to prepare socially and academically disadvantaged Black and Latino youth for college and successful futures. [ 3 ]. In other words, due to Buyf's programs, low-income urban Black and Latino young people are developed emotionally, spiritually, academically and economically to obtain educational practices. Engaging Urban Youth through Community-based Action written by Gilberto O.
Conchas and Louie F. Rodriguez (2003) testified positive achievements of the program: the decrease of truancy among the youth. As a result, students were more involved in school activities and started to develop a pro-academic ideology. [ 3 ]. Students in the program did not dropout and instead continued their education in two or four-year colleges.
The authors of the investigation noted that due to the program the students thrived socially and academically in the colleges. [ 3 ]. BUYF is based on such educational programs [ 3 ]: School Success. Its goal is to make better school attendance and performance. This program focuses on truancy prevention.
It mediates lots of the personal and social needs of youth which is placed at-risk of school failure. Academic Enrichment Centre (AEC) provides academic skills aimed at improving Reading and Math. College Vision. It seeks to better grades and prepare youth for college and the SAT. There are five factors identified by the youth in the program as significant to their academic and social motivation. These factors are as following [ 3 ]: Space.
It is a physical location which promotes positive peer relations through the dialogues among the youth, through the process of teaching and learning. Incentive structures. These are mechanisms which encourage and motivate youth to take positive action through participation and investment. Advocacy. It supports and voices the concerns of youth. This factor positively engages youth in various contexts within the family, school and community.
Social networks. This factor helps to produce a pro-school ideology and thus it mediates academic and social engagement of students. Transformation. This factor means changing negative perceptions about life, society and school into positive ones. Students gradually become productive citizens who are willing to achieve success in their lives. So, these two successful examples of in-school and community-based programs evidence the efforts made by educational research and practice to prevent dropout among students in Urban High School Settings.
Though both of the programs were developed in separate districts and the progress achieved had more local than national meaning. The innovations of the Philadelphia-based Talent Development High School Model and the Boston Urban Youth Foundation will surely serve for greater projects. Bibliography: Adria Steinberg and Cheryl Almeida. The Dropout Crisis: Promising Approaches in Prevention and Recovery. Jobs for the Future. Creating Strategies.
June 2004. 14 Jan. 2005 < web > E. Gregory Woods. Reducing the Dropout Rate. School Improvement Research Series. Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory. 2001. 14 Jan. 2005 < web > Gilberto O.
Conchas, Louie F. Rodriguez. Engaging Urban Youth through Community-based Action. How the School Success Truancy Prevention Program Motivates Middle Graders. 2003. 14 Jan. 2005 < web > Kathleen Cotton. School Size, School Climate, and Student Performance. Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory.
May 1996. 14 Jan. 2005 < web > Letters, N. , Balfanz, R. , Jordan, W. , & McPartland, J. (2000). Comprehensive reform for urban high schools: A talent development approach. New York: Teachers College Press. School Dropout Prevention. Anchorage School District Psychology Department. Psych Savvy.
April, 2001. 14 Jan. 2005 < web > What Works in Urban Education. Council of the Great City Schools. October, 1999. 14 Jan. 2005 < web > Wesley C. Pugh. American Urban High School Reform: Talent Development the Philadelphia Story. 14 Jan. 2005. < web >
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Research essay sample on Ninth Grade Community Based
