Reduction of the High School

Reduction of the High School Dropout Rate in Bermuda

The value of a high school education over the course of an individual's lifetime has been well documented, but many high school students continue to drop out of school prior to graduation for various reasons. Of the $798 million that taxpayers paid last year to keep the wheels of Government in motion, $132 million or 16%, went towards public education. Among government ministries, education was the second biggest spender. Despite this and the millions of dollars already spent on the construction of Bermuda's two public high schools, CedarBridge Academy and the Berkeley Institute, public confidence in the Government school system remains low. The purpose of this thesis is to make the readers aware of this issue and to make recommendations on how to improve Bermuda's current high school graduation and dropout rates.

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION and OVERVIEW

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW

CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH DESIGN and METHODOLOGY

CHAPTER FOUR: DATA COLLECTION, FINDINGS and ANALYSIS

CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSIONS and RECOMMENDATIONS

REDUCING the DROPOUT RATE for BERMUDIAN YOUTH

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION and OVERVIEW

Introduction

There is a high school dropout epidemic in Bermuda. Each year, over half of all public high school students fail to graduate from public high school with their class. Many of these students abandon school with less than two years to complete their high school education.

As high schools move to the top of the reform agenda, educators have been scrutinizing one of the most significant indicators of a high school's performance: the rate of students who graduate. The attention is well-deserved -- a high school diploma is the minimal qualification young people need to survive in today's society.

This tragic cycle has not substantially improved during the past few decades. During this time, the general public has been almost entirely unaware of the severity of the dropout problem due to inaccurate data. The Honorable K.H. Randolph Horton, JP, MP, Minister of Education, Sports and Recreation in his briefing remarks in the House of Parliament on the Education Review stated, "Bermuda's public education system is at a crossroads. That should not be. Public education is one of the fundamental elements of any society. Public education is the vehicle by which any country ensures that the majority of its population achieves those fundamental skills - those reading, writing and critical thinking skills that are necessary to create a settled populace and to ensure the stability of the nation."

Improving student achievement must be Bermuda's ultimate objective. With a prison population which demonstrates high level of illiteracy, with a cohort of young people who believe that violence is the most immediate and natural way to resolve problems, with young people who say that they cannot compete for a piece of the economic pie within their own country, we are at the erosion point. In a fast - paced, complex, information - based economy like ours, education is a must. In order to compete and become a productive member of one's community and ultimately society as a whole depends upon the fundamental skills acquired in high school. Individuals today need to have the ability to communicate with clarity, confidence, and precision when they speak, read, and write just to function in everyday life. Without an adequate educational background individuals are often unable to succeed during their adult lives. In fact, many who find themselves in this position are not only incapable of becoming upwardly mobile and contributing to society but in addition; create costly problems that society must deal with. This puts a strain on the personal lives of these individuals and subsequently places an undue burden on the backs of the communities that must deal with the problems associated with dropping out of high school.

Statement of the Problem

Of the $798 million that taxpayers paid last year to keep the wheels of Government in motion, $132 million or 16%, went towards public education. Among government ministries, education was the second biggest spender. Despite this and the millions of dollars already spent on the construction of Bermuda's two public high schools, CedarBridge Academy and the Berkeley Institute, public confidence in the Government school system remains low. Given a choice, many parents, including teachers in public school, opt for private schooling for their children.

Throughout the world the dropout rates are particularly alarming, because in today's society there are few employment opportunities that pay living wages, and benefits are rare for those who have neither completed a high school education nor acquired necessary basic skills. On average, youth who drop out are more likely than others to experience negative outcomes such as unemployment, underemployment, and incarceration.

Bermuda's dropout and graduation rates are at the erosion point; there is a high school dropout crisis far beyond the imagination of most Bermudians relegating hundreds of Bermudian children to a life of failure. Far more students are leaving high school without a diploma than most people realize and we urgently need to address this problem as a country because graduation from high school is a critical gateway to successful participation in the workforce, economy and society.

Statement of the Purpose

The purpose of this thesis is to make the readers aware of this issue and to make recommendations on how to improve Bermuda's current high school graduation and dropout rates. The dropout problem is far worse than statistics show because they simply do not account for those students who fail to receive their high school diplomas as dropouts. The 54% pass rate in the public high school sector would be a great deal lower if the number of students who entered high school in Senior 1 was compared to the actual number of students that graduated four years later.

According to Bermuda's Minister of Education, "The Bermuda Government offers a continuum of free education to Bermudians from birth to 16. Compulsory school age is by law from 5 years to 16 years of age. Approximately 60% of Bermudian students who are of compulsory school age attend public schools. The remainder attends fee-paying private schools or home schools, which are known in Bermuda as tutorial sites" (James, 2008, p. 2). Notwithstanding the territory's enviable 98% literacy rate (Bermuda, 2008), approximately 40% of Bermuda's children are enrolled in private education, indicating that the community has rendered its verdict: there is a crisis of confidence in the Bermuda Public Education System. Hence, Bermuda's Public Educational System, according to its mission statement, is not the first choice of most Bermudian parents. For example, in 2004, more than 10,900 students were enrolled in Bermuda schools, including the Bermuda College. Of these, 6,378 attended government schools and 3,612 attended private schools, with a further 950 on their waiting lists.

Research Question(s)

How can Bermuda reduce the dropout and graduation rates in the public senior schools?

What are the influencing factors that affect the dropout rate for Bermudian Youth?

What strategies can be developed to improve the alarming high school dropout rate? What resources will be needed?

Overall student performance, especially in middle and high school, barely merits a passing grade. In June 2005, only 53 per cent of students graduated from CedarBridge Academy and the Berkeley Institute. This was an improvement over the 41 per cent who graduated in 2004 according to the Ministry of Education's statistics. This does not necessarily mean that the students who do not graduate are destined to be the proverbial wall sitters; some students may actually complete their high school education overseas or continue their education at a later time, but the dropout rate remains sizeable. While the Education Ministry has been warned by overseas experts about the consequences of not addressing the drop out rate, social havoc, the Ministry seems to be unwilling to even keep track of actual numbers?

What do the results show?

Of the class of 2004, 28% graduated on time in June

In June of 2005, 30% graduated on time.

In 2006, 38% of the class graduated in June.

There has been an increase of 10% in students graduating on time for the islands two senior schools in 2006 compared to 2004; however, this is not good enough. This does not excuse the fact that our graduation rates are unacceptably low, especially in an economy that relies on high-skill levels. The failure of over half of the students who do not complete their high school education is a reflection of the failure of the larger society in which these schools are administered.

Summary

Education is one of the most powerful and life-determining forces existing in our society, and even our world. Going to school is something that a majority of students take for granted. Yet the opportunities and insights towards life and oneself that it offers are innumerable. Education is here for us with the incredibly significant purpose of giving us general background knowledge, preparing us for a life of citizenship, and making us better people with the chance for brighter, more successful futures. "Education provides the foundation upon which stable nations are built," said Stephen F. Moseley, chair of the Coalition advisory board and president and CEO of the Academy for Educational Development. "It is not a luxury that can be addressed at some point in the future, but rather it provides people with the tools to survive and improve their lives" (Basic Education Coalition 2004). There is no one magical, quick fix solution to Bermuda's dropout problem. The problem is complex and requires a complex array of solutions. It is the intent of this paper to study the scope of this hidden crisis, the poor dropout and graduation rates of Bermuda's Public High School System, by reviewing the most recent and accurate data on graduation and dropout rates, exploring the reasons that young people drop out of school, and presenting the most promising models for helping high school students graduate with their peers.

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW

Introduction.

This chapter provides a review of the relevant peer-reviewed, scholarly and governmental literature to develop the requisite background and overview of the current public and private educational services provided in Bermuda, a discussion of dropout prevention and graduation rates,

Background and Overview.

Today, Bermuda has the third highest per capita income in the world; in fact, the island's per capita income is more than 50% higher than the United States (Bermuda, 2008). Bermuda also invests in its educational system to the extent of 1.2% of its gross national product (Bermuda). Moreover, the history of education in Bermuda is nearly as old as the territory itself. For instance, according to Bernhard (1999), "Puritanism, with its strong emphasis on Bible reading, was almost certainly responsible for the early concern for religious instruction and public education in Bermuda. In 1622, when the colony was scarcely a decade old, Governor Nathaniel Butler ordered all the tribes to keep birth, marriage, and death records and to set aside time on the Sabbath for the religious instruction of children" (p. 43). One local authority reports that, "Government grants for primary education began in 1816. The government educational system of today derives, however, from the Schools Act 1879 and is based on the traditional British pattern" (Forbes, 2008, p. 7).

Clearly, the four centuries that have passed since the territory's discovery have witnessed some profound changes to the educational system in Bermuda. According to one local observer, "Bermuda is a tiny island of only 21 square miles or 56 kilometers in total land area. The educational system here is completely independent of the systems of any foreign country such as the United Kingdom, USA or Canada or beyond" (Forbes, 2008, p. 2). The Education Act 1949 established the right of all children within what was then the compulsory school age (7 to 13) to receive free primary education" (Forbes, 2008, p. 7). By 1969, the compulsory school age had been expanded to 5 to 16 years and all children within that age are entitled to free primary and secondary education (Forbes). The Bermudan Education Act was amended in 1985 to entitle children to remain in secondary school up to the age of 19 years in order to complete the secondary program (Forbes).

The Bermudan population is relatively homogeneous and the island's small population has created some unique challenges for educators and parents alike. As Forbes emphasizes, "Unlike in far larger countries with significant multi-cultural populations and cultural and educational facilities and laws and faculties to match, no laws or facilities of any kind exist (because there is no or insufficient demand for them) in Bermuda for non-English-speaking children to be taught while at school in any language other than English" (p. 3). In this environment, it may not be all that surprising that the public educational system has languished in recent years, and there is a growing consensus that the citizens of Bermuda and their children deserve far better for their tax dollars. A review of current public private and public high school facilities available in Bermuda is provided below.

Public and Private High School Facilities in Bermuda Today.

Notwithstanding the foregoing constraints, Bermuda enjoys a number of high-quality institutions of learning, particularly in the private sector; while this is not vastly different than the situation faced by many other nations, it is clear that the public sector is failing to engage a number of high school students who become disillusioned, frustrated or impatient with their progress in school. According to Forbes, "Public education in Bermuda at Bermuda Government owned or maintained schools is conducted by accredited and qualified teachers who must be certified by the Bermuda Government and are members of the Bermuda Union of Teachers" (p. 5). According to Bermuda's Ministry of Education & Development governs a public school system which includes two senior secondary schools, five middle schools, 18 primary schools, 12 preschools, two special schools and a junior college. There are also several private schools in Bermuda. Some 62% of Bermuda's children go to public schools, while 36% go to private schools.

Taxpayer-funded, unlike private schools which are not. The mission of Government-owned or maintained schools, also known in Bermuda as public schools, is the provision of an environment in which each student may develop academic, practical and physical skills; practice critical and creative thinking; exemplify aesthetic, social, moral and spiritual values which characterize a secure, self-confident individual who is capable of constructive participation in the community and effective functioning in an age of change, with life-long, self-directed learning.

The government system comprises a number of primary schools, access to which is determined mainly on the basis of proximity of residence to a school. The system at secondary level consists of a fewer number of schools, is selective and is divided between academic and general schools. Principals of the secondary schools select pupils on the basis of performance in an examination taken at the end of the primary school stage and of parental preference. Technical and prevocational education is provided in the general secondary schools. Provision is also made for the education of children with special needs in six special schools, which have been in operation for more than 20 years, and in special program classes, which have operated for more than 10 years, in regular primary and secondary schools. Special education provides a continuum of services appropriate to the range of special needs of the students concerned. Free education is provided in a number of pre-schools for four-year-old children.

Curriculum guides at all levels have been in place for several years. At the pre-schools, the curriculum objectives are related to social, cognitive and motor development, as well as to language, mathematics, social studies and science. The Government has restructured the educational system in order to remove selectivity from the secondary level and to provide equal access to the curriculum for all students. The system has three levels -primary, middle and senior secondary (Forbes).

The Bermuda College, which was incorporated by the Bermuda College Act 1974, offers opportunities for higher education in liberal arts, business studies, hotel administration and technology. The College, a publicly funded institution, provides a two-year university transfer program which enables qualified students to enter the third year of a four-year institution in North America. The two-year diploma has been accepted as the equivalent of "A" levels in the United Kingdom and enables students to enter the first year of selected universities there. The College operates a Faculty of Adult and Continuing Education which enables persons already in the workforce to upgrade their skills. The Adult Education School, a private institution which receives a government grant through the Bermuda College, provides a means by which those who have not gained secondary school certification may do so through the General Education Development (GED) program developed in the United States. The Government operates an extensive financial aid scheme to assist students seeking higher education in institutions outside Bermuda. A satisfactory academic performance and demonstration of financial need are two of the principal criteria for the receipt of such aid. In addition, there are Bermuda Government Scholarships based on academic merit and commitment to the teaching profession (Forbes).

All teachers in the government schools are eligible for membership in the Amalgamated Bermuda Union of Teachers, which negotiates salaries and conditions of service. All principals in government schools are eligible for membership in the Association of School Principals, which similarly represents their interests. Programs of professional development, salaries and conditions of service for teachers and principals have been continually improved. Negotiations on these terms of employment take place every two years and their outcome is confirmed in published agreements with the Government (Forbes).

The Attorney General advised a meeting in late March 2007 that Bermuda's public education system needed dramatically restructuring from pre-school to the senior level. Local educators claim Bermuda's public, or government, school students lag two years behind public school students of the U.S.A. In English and Mathematics. Senator Philip Perinchief, a former teacher, said at least three public high schools were needed on the Island in the east, west and central parishes, as opposed to the two central senior schools Bermuda has now; Perinchief also called for an institution offering vocational education to replace the long-closed Technical Institute and a community college awarding four-year degrees. In this regard, "Too long in my experience we continue to be satisfied with mediocrity," he said. The Minister was speaking at Cathedral Hall in Hamilton where a team of education experts from the UK who were carrying out a review of Bermuda's public schools invited comments from the public. Premier Ewart Brown and Education Minister Randy Horton also attended but did not speak. Two simultaneous meetings were held in St. George's and Sandys as part of the wide-reaching inquiry, which is aimed, in part, at pinpointing why less than half of the Island's public senior school students are graduating with a Bermuda School Certificate. Professor David Hopkins, from the Institute of Education at the University of London, led the review and advised the Hamilton meeting: "The purpose of these meetings is to give you an opportunity to talk directly to myself and my colleagues so that we can be certain we are feeding authentic views into our report." His team is visited every one of the Island's public schools and will present a report to Mr. Horton by April 30, 2007. The recommendations for change were scheduled to become effective as of September 2007. Professor Hopkins indicated that contents of the report should be made "as public as possible," and added that, "One of the recommendations is that the implementation is monitored. I have a feeling from the Minister that he feels likewise" (quoted in Forbes at p. 6).

Dozens of concerned parents and citizens attended the Hamilton meeting and shared their opinions concerning why the public education system in Bermuda is failing to fulfill is mandate. In fact, one female teacher ventured to suggest that it might be a good idea to simply abolish the territory's public schools completely (Forbes). Other suggestions made by members of the public included that retired teachers be used as mentors in the classroom, that Afro-centric learning be introduced and that the curriculum be made more flexible to meet different children's needs (Forbes).

On May 4, 2007, the Education Review team made ten published recommendations to fix the public school system, with the first six of them needing to be implemented as soon as possible in order to improve the current system as follows:

Dramatically improve the quality of teaching. With one in four lessons deemed inadequate the review team said it was vital principals ensured their teachers delivered challenging and informative lessons. Progress of each and every student should be monitored and reviewed regularly. An internal audit on the effectiveness of teaching, with external corroboration of the findings, was needed. Teachers should also be subjected to performance reviews throughout the upcoming school year and teachers deemed "excellent" should be used to help others improve.

Better leadership from principals required. The quality of this leadership was deemed "pivotal" by the team who stressed the need for improved leadership immediately. This would require in depth appraisals from a school improvement adviser or another principal. Each principal should be paired with a consultant from abroad to help them and be able to avail of advanced training.

Overhaul the Ministry of Education. Senior personal need to be removed right away and the entire Ministry needs to be restructured. The Ministry is a "poorly led and mismatched organisation" which is "secretive," "paternalistic" and "stifles" progress in education. It needs to view schools as "clients" and educational officers should only be appointed based on merit. No one should receive a contract longer than five years and an interim Executive Board should evaluate the Ministry.

An Executive Board should be created to implement the review. The board would act on behalf of the Ministry and produce a three-year strategic plan which would include these recommendations as well as the Bermuda Education Strategic Team's recommendations. The Board of Education could be restored and given more powers to fulfill this role, or a new group could be made.

More delegation, accountability and transparency. Schools should not have to depend on the Ministry for guidance and should be able to implement initiatives themselves. They should have more freedom and take on more responsibilities. Rigorous standards for key grades, such as Primary 3 and Senior 2, should be established and "authentic testing" should be implemented in these grades. An annual school review should also be implemented.

Raise school leaving age and create a senior school federation. Students should be required to stay in school until they are age 18 years and more vocational education was needed. A senior school federation would see the Board delegate a lot of responsibility to an executive principal. The curriculum would also have to be stream lined so that all schools taught the same topics which led directly into what was being taught at the Bermuda College.

Create a federation for each primary and middle school partnership. This aims to deal with the problems brought on by the education restructure which took place in 1997. It includes creating a Board which would oversee a primary school and the middle school it feeds into. They would have some power in hiring and firing as well as the allocation of resources. The curriculum would also be streamlined to ensure the transition was seamless.

Tweak the curriculum. To ensure students could move from one grade to another, and progress through the system, having learnt the same curriculum no matter what school they attended. The curriculum of key grades also needed to be sharpened and standards and assessments improved.

Address behavioral and learning difficulties. Students with learning disabilities should be catered to within the class instead of being sent to special classes. More attention needs to be paid to getting assistance for primary school students exhibiting behavioral problems.

Make it a community effort. The boards which would run the federations and schools should be filled by elections so that there is more direct involvement from the community.

Currently, Bermudian youths seeking a public high school education have two alternatives available to them:

Cedarbridge Academy, 1 Cedarbridge Lane, Devonshire DV 02

The Berkeley Institute, 23 Berkeley Road, Pembroke HM 09, or P.O. Box 2704, Hamilton HM KX. Founded 1897.

Both of these high schools are described by the Bermudian education minister as being "state of the arts facilities," having been constructed within the past 10 years (James, 2008). According to James, "Both senior schools offer a broad range of subjects and afford students the opportunity to delve more in depth in their subjects, with a view to ultimately achieving 104 credits after 4 years in order to be awarded the Bermuda School Certificate or BSC. Senior schools offer external examinations (GCSEs) in various subjects, with the Ministry underwriting the costs of examinations written in the core areas" (p. 4).

Notwithstanding this glowing commentary by the education minister, many parents who are able to afford to do so elect to have their children attend private schools in Bermuda. In this regard, there are a number of private schools available to children of all ages as well as two private schools which provide early primary education. These institutions receive no government funding. The Government has the authority to determine the examinations to be taken in such schools, as a means of ensuring appropriate academic standards there. Some are both preparatory (primary) and secondary (Forbes).

Local private or independent schools have a fundamentally different educational philosophy and a much higher standard overall than local public schools. They train their students to sit for and pass American, British, Canadian and European university qualifying programs which are internationally recognized. Several also offer an additional year, a Grade 13 equivalent, for academically gifted students to enter university with the equivalent of a sophomore year achieved. These schools charge tuition costing thousands of dollars a year per student. Nevertheless, all are running at full capacity and several have substantial waiting lists. Some may be Member Schools of the Incorporated Association of Preparatory Schools, or the Independent Schools Information Service, or Independent Schools Council, all in the United Kingdom (Forbes).

Dropout Prevention and Graduation Rates

There is a growing body of evidence that supports the inescapable correlation between dropout rates and adverse social consequences. In this regard, Christle, Jolivette and Michael (2007) report that, "Dropping out of high school culminates a long-term process of disengagement from school and has profound social and economic consequences for students, their families, and their communities. Students who drop out of high school are more likely to be unemployed, to earn less than those who graduate, to be on public assistance, and to end up in prison" (p. 325). Likewise, Drapela (2006) emphasizes that, "Dropping out of high school is generally considered to be a negative life event for youth. High school dropouts have higher unemployment and underemployment rates than high school graduates as well as higher arrest rates, and greater involvement in interpersonal violence. They also have a greater prevalence of both licit and illicit substance use" (p. 755). Given the enormous adverse consequences associated with dropping out of high school, many researchers and educators alike are interested in identifying those factors that contribute to the incidence of dropouts in a given setting. For instance, Suh, Suh and Houston (2007) emphasize that, "For educators and counselors concerned with the well-being of society, school, family, and, particularly, the individual student, identifying the predictors of high school failure is a critical task. By identifying predictors early, counselors and other school personnel may be able to generate effective prevention and intervention strategies" (p. 196).

A growing body of research has been focused on identifying those factors that contribute to dropping out of school before high school graduation with such variables including the individual, family, and school (Suh et al.). Not surprisingly, a number of social researchers are interested in the issue of school dropout have attempted to identify students who are, in fact, at increased risk of dropping out (Suh et al.).

According to Peck, Law, and Mills (1987) it is increasingly being recognized that the issues of dropping out and dropout prevention cannot be separated from issues affecting our total economic and social structure. These issues include poverty, unemployment, the role of the family, social values, child abuse, and drug abuse. Dropping out is a complex social problem for which there is no simple solution. Focusing attention on fixing one part of the problem calls attention to the need for solutions to many other parts as well. Thus, many educators and others concerned with the dropout problem are advocating policies involving a broad range of institutions and agencies (Hargroves, 1987). Youth who drop out of school are predicted to be an even larger problem in the future (OERI, 1987).

Dropping out of high school is an important economic and social problem. Since the early 1980's, the increasing global and competitive nature of the world economy has increased the benefits of education. More highly educated workers have seen their incomes rise, and less educated workers have seen their incomes fall. With economies changing from a dependence on manufacturing towards a reliance on technology, services, and a "knowledge economy" the need for education beyond high school has grown. High school education is now considered a minimum standard, and the jobs of the future increasingly require some post secondary education. Within this context, the data presented in this paper raise some serious concerns about Bermuda's high school graduation and dropout rates which raise major concerns and implications for them and Bermuda's economic well-being.

In the United States high school dropouts are 72% more likely to be unemployed as compared to high school graduates (U.S. Department of Labor, 2003). Nearly 80% of individuals in prison do not have a high school diploma (Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, 1995).According to the National Longitudinal Transition Study of special education students, the arrest rates of youth with disabilities who dropped out were significantly higher than those who had graduated (Wagner et al., 1991). Three to five years after dropping out, the cumulative arrest rate for youth with serious emotional disturbance was 73% (Wagner, 1995).

In addition to the costs incurred by individuals who drop out of school, the social costs associated with the incidence of dropout are immense. Students who do not complete school cost taxpayers billions of dollars in lost revenues, welfare, unemployment, and crime prevention and prosecution (Joint Economic Committee, 1991). Students who graduate from high school earn an average of $9,245 more per year than students who do not complete school (Employment Policy Foundation, 2001). In light of the negative consequences for society and individuals, facilitating school completion for all students must be a priority for educators, administrators, and policymakers everywhere.

Most of the research literature of this paper will come from sources other than Bermuda as there is no literature on Bermuda dropout rates other than the just recently concluded

Review of Public Education in Bermuda undertaken in March 2007. This report presents the findings and recommendations of the Review and the evidence and views on which these are based. The report focuses on the following areas:

The basics of corporate leadership in education;

Strategy for education and its implementation;

Support to improve education in schools;

Support for special educational needs and social inclusion;

Quality of leadership; and Standards of teaching, learning and achievement.

The aim of the Review was two-fold as follows: (a) to evaluate the effectiveness of public education in Bermuda and identify strengths and areas for improvement; and (b) to provide evidence for a thorough reform of the public education system using a transparent methodology with very clear recommendations for action that will result in rapid improvement of this sector of government within short-term scales.

Given the clear detrimental economic and personal cost to them, why do young people drop out of high school in such large numbers? Why are so many dreams cut short? And what steps should be taken to turn the tide?

The primary purpose of this paper is to approach the dropout problem from that of the perspective of the student. This should paint a more in-depth picture of who these young people are, why they dropped out of high school, and what might have helped them to complete their high school education. I want to give their stories and insights a voice, and to offer my own solutions in a hope that this paper will be a further wake up call to educators, policy makers, other leaders and the public to summon the national will to address the high school dropout epidemic.

What Dropouts Say.

Asked why they decided to leave high school, dropouts from the past 30 years consistently cited three major reasons (Curley, Sawyer, and Savitsky, 1971; "High School," 1984; "High School," 1977; Kumar and Bergstrand, 1979; "Mother," 1982; Norris, Wheeler, and Finley, 1980; Peng and Takai, 1983; Stetler, 1959):

dislike of school and a view that school is boring and not relevant to their needs.

Low academic achievement, poor grades, or academic failure.

A need for money and a desire to work full-time.

What Researchers Say.

Studies of high school dropouts conducted over the past thirty years in several states and nationwide have identified these same three basic reasons for dropping out (see references cited above):

Dislike of School. Consistent with the dropouts' reported dislike of and boredom with school, researchers have found a pattern of absenteeism among dropouts when they were still in school and a low rate of participation in extracurricular activities.

Low Academic Achievement. Researchers have found that lowered performance in either reading or mathematics tended to increase the likelihood that a student would leave school. Data suggest that failure often begins in elementary school.

Desire to Work. High school dropouts tend to belong to families of low socioeconomic status ("Mother," 1982; Peng and Takai, 1983). In support of this finding, dropouts themselves report that they left school planning to work full-time. Likewise, J.A. Asche (1989) states that:

Based on a thorough analysis of the research literature, Wells and Bechard (1989) identified four major categories of factors that contribute to a student profile of characteristics that may lead to a student's dropping out of school. The four categories list risk factors that are school-related, student-related, community-related, and family-related. The likelihood of a student dropping out of school increases as the combination of risk factors becomes more multifaceted. (p. 10)

Poor academic performance is the single strongest school-related predictor of dropping out (OERI Urban Superintendents Network 1987; Hess, et al. 1987; Wood 1994). The most recent Department of Education annual dropout report relates that students who repeated one or more grades were twice as likely to drop out as those who had never been held back, and those who repeated more than one grade were four times as likely to leave school before completion.

Student-related risk factors include personal problems independent of social/family background. Substance abuse, pregnancy and legal problems are frequently reported along with school-related problem behaviors such as truancy, absenteeism, tardiness, suspension, and other disciplinary infractions.

Parents also play a crucial role in keeping young people in school. The degree and nature of family support are determined by such factors as a stressful/unstable home life, socioeconomic status, minority membership, siblings' completion of high school, single- parent households, poor education of parents, and primary language other than English (Horn 1992).

Lest these correlations be misunderstood, it is also important to point out that, of the community-related factors, it is poverty that is the strongest predictor of dropping out. "When socioeconomic factors are controlled, the differences across racial, ethnic, geographic, and other demographic lines blur" (OERI Urban Superintendents Network 1987, p. 5).

Researchers have also found that working can contribute to a student dropping out. Some research shows that student employment begins to correlate with dropping out when the student regularly works over 14 hours per week (Mann, 1986; 1987). Other research places the critical level for employment higher, at 20 hours per week (Winters, 1986), with the likelihood of dropping out increasing with the number of hours worked.

Efforts to prevent students from dropping out of school should begin when children start school, not when they're about to leave it, says Franklin P. Schargel, one of the authors of "Strategies to Help Solve Our School Dropout Problem." According to Schargel and co-author Jay Smink, educators, parents, and the community need to work together to reduce the school dropout rate. Included: Fifteen effective strategies for reducing the number of school dropouts shown in Table ____ below.

THE 15 EFFECTIVE STRATEGIES EXPLAINED

Table ____.

Core Strategies

Description

Mentoring/Tutoring

Mentoring is a one-to-one caring, supportive relationship between a mentor and a mentee that is based on trust. Tutoring, also a one-to-one activity, focuses on academics and is an effective way to address specific needs such as reading, writing, or math competencies.

Service Learning

Service learning connects meaningful community service experiences with academic learning. This teaching/learning method promotes personal and social growth, career development, and civic responsibility and can be a powerful vehicle for effective school reform at all grade levels.

Alternative Schooling

Alternative schooling provides potential dropouts a variety of options that can lead to graduation, with programs paying special attention to the students' individual social needs and the academic requirements for a high school diploma.

Out-of-School Enhancement

Many schools provide after-school and summer enhancement programs that eliminate information loss and inspire interest in a variety of areas. Such experiences are especially important for students at risk of school failure.

Early Interventions: Early Childhood Education

Birth-to-three interventions demonstrate that providing a child educational enrichment can modify IQ. The most effective way to reduce the number of children who will ultimately drop out is to provide the best possible classroom instruction from the beginning of their school experience.

Family Involvement

Research consistently finds that family involvement has a direct, positive effect on children's achievement and is the most accurate predictor of a student's success in school.

Reading & Writing Programs

Early interventions to help low-achieving students recognize that focusing on reading and writing skills is the foundation for effective learning in all subjects.

Making the Most of Instruction

No sustained and comprehensive effort to keep students in school can afford to ignore what happens in the classroom. Strategies that produce better teachers, expand teaching methods to accommodate a range of learning styles, take advantage of today's cornucopia of technological resources, and meet the individual needs of each student can yield substantial benefits.

Professional Development

Teachers who work with youth at high risk of academic failure need to feel supported and need to have an avenue by which they continue to develop skills, techniques, and learn about innovative strategies.

Openness to Diverse Learning Styles and Multiple Intelligences

When educators show students that there are different ways to learn, students find new and creative ways to solve problems, achieve success, and become lifelong learners.

Instructional Technologies

Technology offers some of the best opportunities for delivering instruction that engages students in authentic learning, addresses multiple intelligences, and adapts to student's learning styles.

Individualized Instruction customized individual learning program for each student allows teachers flexibility with the instructional program and extracurricular activities.

Making the Most of the Wider Community

Students who come to school bring traces of a wider community; when students leave school, either before or after graduation, they return to that community. it's impossible to isolate "school" within the walls of the school building. Effective efforts to keep students in school take advantage of these links with the wider community.

Systemic Renewal

Systemic renewal calls for a continuing process of evaluating goals and objectives related to school policies, practices, and organizational structures as they impact a diverse group of learners.

Community Collaboration

When all groups in a community provide collective support to the school, a strong infrastructure sustains a caring environment where youth can thrive and achieve.

Career Education and Workforce Readiness quality guidance program is essential for all students. School-to-work programs recognize that youth need specific skills to prepare them for the larger demands of today's workplace.

Conflict Resolution and Violence Prevention comprehensive violence prevention plan, including conflict resolution, must deal with potential violence as well as crisis management. Violence prevention means providing daily experiences at all grade levels that enhance positive social attitudes and effective interpersonal skills in all students.

Source:

Educators -- and many others -- believe that dropping out of school is a high school problem. In fact, there's no such thing as a high school dropout! Dropping out of school is not an event; it's a process -- and data indicates that that process begins as early as third grade. According to the United States Department of Education, 8.6% of school dropouts occur in middle school. Educators must start in elementary school to identify students who are having difficulty achieving success -- and build safety nets into the learning process for those students.

Parents need to be drawn early into the learning process, and schools need to make continuing efforts to involve parents in their children's learning. This can become a major challenge; many parents are working more than one job and the single-parent family is the norm in Bermuda.

Many schools and school districts are reluctant to admit they have a dropout problem. Although inner-city school districts often have a horrendous problem, no school community is exempt. Accepting any number of school dropouts -- even small numbers -- is a mistake. In the 21st century, as our society becomes more complex and more dependent on information, knowledge, and technology, a school dropout will have a difficult -- if not an impossible -- time finding work.

We need to change the teacher-learning paradigm. Teachers must become "enablers," enabling children to obtain information and turn it into a usable resource -- knowledge. We must get away from the concept of only teaching information. Information is expanding exponentially at a rate that, according to Hewlett Packard, is doubling every two and a half years. Students must have a core of information. But continuing to teach and test only information is, in my opinion, a mistake.

Wherever I travel, I hear that education, especially education of children at risk, is expensive. I acknowledge that a major portion of local and state budgets go for education, but few people measure the cost of incarceration. Data from the United States Department of Corrections indicates that 82% of prisoners are school dropouts. It is not education that is expensive, it is the lack of education! "Education is a one-time cost, ignorance is a lifetime expenditure."

Schools need to be as globally competitive as businesses are. Schools frequently compare themselves to the school down the street or across town, but school graduates don't compete for employment with the best people in a city. They compete against the world's best. Cities compete for industry by saying that their schools are better than schools in another city; they should be saying that their schools are among the best in the world. The greatest economic stimulus to an area is a high graduation rate and a low dropout rate.

What does the Literature on Dropouts tell us to do about the problem?

Be proactive in preventing the problem - available research suggest that being held back is the single strongest predictor of dropping out and that its effect is consistent for both early and late dropouts. School factors can account for approximately two thirds of the difference in mean school dropout rates.

For prevention to be effective, schools must engage all students in learning, and they must focus specifically on the problem of re-engaging students who have become disengaged from classroom learning.

The literature points to the need to provide one-on-one intensive attention to at-risk students, who often must be convinced that they are competent and can be successful in school. Children at-risk need to be identified at a young age (as early as preschool) so that early sustained intervention can be applied.

Enable the professional development of teachers to ensure they have the knowledge and skills to teach a wider range of students to meet standards.

Redesign school structures to support more intensive learning.

Provide students the support and services they need in order to succeed.

Use classroom assessments that better inform teaching

Educational alternative programs provide a non-traditional approach to curriculum by utilizing alternative teaching strategies. Programs focus upon the needs and interests of students by offering positive school experiences, which are geared for achievement, enhancement of positive self - concept, motivation, reduction of truancy, reduction of disruptive behavior, and reduction of teenage pregnancy.

The National Dropout Prevention Center/Network has identified fifteen effective strategies that have the most positive impact on the dropout rate. These strategies have been implemented successfully at all education levels and environments throughout the United States.

INEFFECTIVE PRACTICES

Research which has yielded information on effective dropout prevention practices has also produced findings about ineffective practices. Unfortunately, these practices can still be found. Ineffective practices identified in the work of Dryfoos (1990) include:

State-mandated promotion policies. If standards and requirements are raised without support for school improvement and without personal attention to the varied populations of high-risk students and their specific learning requirements, the effect will be to push more young people out of school.

Ability grouping. Students' self-concepts suffer as a result of labeling them average or below. Placement in lower ability groups is associated with lower teacher expectations and reduced learning.

Early intervention without follow-up.

Basic skills teaching by itself.

Work experiences and on-the-job training with no other interventions. There is need for some kind of individual attention or mentoring as well.

Grafting additional staff and programs onto existing ineffective structures, e.g., extending the school day or adding more courses.

Increasing the number of attendance officers to cut down on truancy.

The findings cited in this paper are drawn from the 26 documents listed in the "Key References" section of the bibliography. Of these, six are studies, thirteen are reviews, and seven are syntheses of findings on school dropouts. Looking at the subjects of the research, twelve reports focus on addressing the dropout problem at the high school level, and six are concerned with potential dropouts/students at risk in grades K-12. Subjects in the remaining reports were (1) the age range from 2 to 29, (2) dropouts in general, (3) high school graduates, (4) middle and junior high school students, (5) black high school graduates and dropouts in an urban setting, (6) Hispanic and language minority students, and (7) parents and the community.

Conclusion

How can educators begin to turn the tide? Research shows that decreasing our dropout rates will happen student by student. Students drop out for reasons as individual as the students themselves. As a review of the literature shows, the best drop-out prevention strategies lock on to students as individuals, engaging them in school and teaching them the skills they need to cope with difficult times in school and in their lives.

The dropout crisis is real, and it affects the futures of our students every day. However, research shows that schools need not wait until students have already dropped out or are in imminent danger of dropping out. Instead, schools and teachers can intentionally develop key resiliency traits and skills in students to provide protection against circumstances that would otherwise be associated with dropping out. Providing this knowledge in an environment rich with trusting and support adult-student relationships can mean the difference between dropping out and completing high school, which means making very real differences in the lives of students.

CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH DESIGN and METHODOLOGY

Introduction.

This chapter describes more fully the study's research design and methodology. To this end, a description of the research methods employed, definitions of key terms used, and major limitations of the study are presented below, followed by a summary of the chapter.

Research Methods.

A review of the available research methodologies indicated that a mixed methodology was the best approach to achieve the above-stated research purpose and to answer the guiding research questions. The first component of the mixed methodology consisted of a review of the relevant peer-reviewed, scholarly and governmental literature to develop the requisite background and overview of Bermuda, as well as the importance of a high school education and dropout rates in general. This component is highly congruent with a number of social researchers who emphasize the need to review what is known. For example, Fraenkel and Wallen (2001) note that, "Researchers usually dig into the literature to find out what has already been written about the topic they are interested in investigating. Both the opinions of experts in the field and other research studies are of interest. Such reading is referred to as a review of the literature" (p. 48).

Likewise, Gratton and Jones (2003) emphasize that a reviewing of the relevant literature is an essential task in almost any research endeavor today. "No matter how original you think the research question may be," these authors report, "it is almost certain that your work will be building on the work of others. It is here that the review of such existing work is important" (p. 51). A literature review can also be used to help identify existing gaps in the literature. For instance, Gratton and Jones add that, "A literature review is the background to the research, where it is important to demonstrate a clear understanding of the relevant theories and concepts, the results of past research into the area, the types of methodologies and research designs employed in such research, and areas where the literature is deficient" (p. 51). Finally, Wood and Ellis (2003) identified the following as important outcomes of a well conducted literature review:

It helps describe a topic of interest and refine either research questions or directions in which to look;

It presents a clear description and evaluation of the theories and concepts that have informed research into the topic of interest;