Micro-level social work case study applying the planned change process

Hypothetical Case Study

Taking School Seriously

As a social worker, it is never easy to remove a child from their home. This is especially true when the child is going to be placed into a group home setting. In a group home, children are left to operate as a unit, but for the most part are on their own. While there is always an adult on call to supervise, that adult is simply that, a supervisor. Any parental role such as education advocate or assistant with homework are easily forgotten and not followed (Aldgate, 1993). This becomes a problem when the children begin thinking that school is less important than day-to-day life and for some reason stop learning. This problem becomes even more serious as these children approach adulthood where they are unable to transition from their financially supported world into the real working world (Reilly, 2003). It is a solution to this problem that my study will attempt to find.

The Study: Discovering this connection and how to prevent it is the purpose of this case study. Education is too vital to a child's success in life to be neglected and ignored. This will be a qualitative study using four girls between the ages of twelve and fifteen all of whom come from different group homes. The purpose is to determine how removal from their homes and placement in the group home has affected their grades, perspective on education, and desire to succeed in school and whether these factors can explain the common apathy among group home children toward education.

Procedure: I entered the group home as a tutor, offering my services to assist the four girls. During the first meeting, the case files were reviewed and interviews conducted with the adults who primarily interact with the girls. The next four weeks were spent tutoring the girls individually and tracking progress from the bi-weekly tutoring sessions.

Results: Three out of the four girls made no recognizable progress during tutoring. Only one out of the four girls would diligently use the advice given and learn how to improve her studies. The other three girls would not utilize advice, nor would they put any effort into learning key concepts during the sessions. The overall excuses and philosophy of each girl became very clear and is detailed below.

Girl 1: Girl 1 was not interested in school or in improving herself and learning. Her goal and aim in life was to become a bum living in someone's attic. Girl one had lived in this group home for over a year and had been in a previous group home for three years. Since being placed in the group home, she had failed to progress a single grade level. She was now technically in 6th grade, but still attempting 2nd grade curriculum. Girl 1 failed to complete any assigned learning tasks including things as basic as using flash cards regularly. She showed no improvement during the duration of her tutoring.

Girl 2: Girl 2 had been moved between 3 group homes. She was considered at grade level, but had an IEP. She would typically ask for help from other girls on her homework. I soon realized that she was not just asking for help, but having the girls actually complete the homework for her. When asked to complete a much more basic math problem than the ones in her homework, she was unable to complete the steps at all. She had previously been encouraged by her group home leaders to speak up and get help from her teachers, but she had no interest in doing so and instead continued coasting through school. Girl 2 showed no improvement.

Girl 3: Girl 3 had remained in the same group home for 6 months. She was a motivated, dedicated student and had exemplary grades. She tried to complete the necessary tasks that were asked of her in the tutoring sessions; however she did mention that it was very difficult to study in the group home because there was always noise and no places to go that were completely quiet.

Girl 4: Girl 4 had been in group homes since the age of 10 and was now 15. She was scraping by in her classes but focused most of her attention on socializing. Her philosophy was that the group home was embarrassing and she simply wanted nothing to do with it. When questioned as to what improving her grades might do to benefit her in getting out of the group home, she said there was no way out of the group home for her.

Conclusions:

Engagement: It is well-established in the literature that removal into a group home has adverse effects on education and life for children. Even studies going back as far as 20 years clearly show that children removed to foster care settings stop preforming well (Jackson, 1994).

Assessment: When first beginning this study and engaging the students, I was hopeful to find a means of motivating and teaching the girls. At the first interview when the girls were selected, they were chosen because of their current IEP and grades in school. It was obvious that these girls were a clear representation of the body of general body found in group homes. The girls were randomly selected, but all seemed to have common issues related to their current setting.

Planning: I intentionally structured the study in a way that placed in a participatory role. The reason for this was to gain an insider's view of issues these girls were facing.

Implementation: I tutored each girl twice a week for four weeks during the study. These sessions allowed ample time to become familiar with and interact effectively with the girls.

Evaluation: To my surprise, the problems observed were vast and the greatest problem of all was hopelessness. The girls had simply given up and accepted the fact that they would remain in foster care for their entire lives. The next progression of logic seemed to be that the girls need not try in school because they were in foster care. This resulted in a failure to move forward.