Theses and Dissertations

Date of Award

2018

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education

Advisor

Harry Bowman

Committee Member

Matthew Delaney

Committee Member

David Ross

Keywords

at-risk, educational leadership, high school, mentoring, mentoring students, one-on-one, relational support

Abstract

The purpose of this applied dissertation was to explore how effectively a one-on-one mentoring relational support program would influence outcomes in attendance, academic achievement, and behavioral issues at an at-risk charter school in Florida. The majority of the students at the selected charter school are at-risk students, defined as such because their present level of academic achievement is significantly below that of their peers. At the selected charter school, students struggle with low attendance, low academic achievement, and a high number of behavioral infractions. More specifically, low attendance at this school is associated with low academic achievement. This includes failure to complete their academic credits at the same rate as their peers, low test scores, and negative behavioral issues. Study participants included the school’s administrative team, instructional staff, and support team who served as mentors, as well as all students enrolled in the charter school. The mentoring program was used for a period of 10 weeks during the 2017-2018 school year. Mentors and students met for a minimum of 30 minutes per week for 10 consecutive weeks. To establish a baseline during the pretreatment period the researcher began the study by using archived quantitative data on student attendance, credit completion, statewide assessments, behavioral referrals, suspensions, and expulsions. The researcher then examined the posttreatment data at the conclusion of the mentoring program. The objective was to evaluate whether the one-on-one mentoring relational support program influenced outcomes in attendance, academic achievement, and behavioral issues. The outcome of the study suggested that the implementation of a one-on-one mentoring program results in a significant difference in increasing students’ attendance and academic achievement. Contrastingly, the same was not evident for students’ negative behaviors. The mentoring program did not have a significant effect on students’ suspensions and behavioral referrals.

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