Date of Award
2004
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Fischler Graduate School of Education and Human Services
Advisor
Michael Griffin
Committee Member
Donald Lueder
Committee Member
Barbara Packer
Keywords
Career Academy, Englewood High School, 9th-grade students, achievement, administration, applied dissertation study, attendance, career education, communication, curricular integration, discipline, feedback meetings, first-time students, guidance activities, high school initiatives, high schools, instruction, interdisciplinary teams, parent-school interaction, planning periods, retention rates, staff development, standardized tests, student retention, teacher collaboration, teaming, transition programs, transitions
Abstract
This report describes a high school initiative aimed at reducing the high retention rate for first-time 9th-grade students at Englewood High School. By implementing the aspects of teaming to a select group of first-time 9th-grade students, the administration at Englewood High School hoped to decrease the retention rate by 5-7% annually. The retention rate for first-time 9th-grade students for the past 3 years has averaged 47.6%.
Strategies employed by this initiative included: (a) randomly selecting 99 first-time 9th-grade students; (b) teaming together 5 teachers from different disciplines into an interdisciplinary team; and (c) implementing additional parent-school interaction, in-class guidance activities, a more hands-on approach to instruction, and components from the Career Academy. Also, by using a common planning period for the team teachers, activities such as additional staff development, improved communication between team teachers, integrating curricular units, and feedback meetings with administration, the administration would like to eliminate the isolated nature of high schools.
The focus of this applied dissertation study was to reduce the retention rate for first-time 9th-grade students. This goal was attained. Positive results were also reported with respect to student discipline, attendance, and standardized test achievement. Although there are areas of improvement needed in the teaming process and its associated components, the initial step has been taken in improving the transition to Englewood High School, and a blueprint has been created for its expansion.