Date of Award
2003
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Fischler Graduate School of Education and Human Services
Advisor
Don Lueder
Committee Member
Carolyn Buckenmaier
Committee Member
Barbara Packer
Keywords
academic development, academic progress, at-risk students, comprehensive high school, counseling sessions, discipline referrals, discipline reports, early identification, instructional effectiveness, intervention, individualized transition plans, mentoring, parental involvement, poor reading skills, posttest results, pretest results, Project Support, promotion, reading achievement, reading posttest, reading progress, reading scores, social development, targeted students, transitional programs, tutoring, York High, 9th graders, 10th grade, high stakes tests, individual student planning, student planning, student promotion, student support programs, student success, transitional programs
Abstract
York High is a comprehensive high school that offers a variety of programs to a diverse population. Although the school attempts to meet the needs of all students through these diverse programs, there was a group of 9th graders who were not progressing in their academic development due to poor reading skills and social development. They were failing 3 to 7 of their 7 classes. Students need to pass 5 classes to be promoted to the next grade.
Project Support was a comprehensive program designed to assist the targeted group of at-risk students to improve academically and socially. Strategies included early identification, individual student planning, counseling sessions, tutoring, mentoring, and parental involvement.
The targeted students’ grades, discipline reports, and the results of the reading posttest measured the effects of the intervention during the second semester of the 2002-2003 school year. Students’ grades were collected in November, December, January, March, and May to determine progress or lack of progress. Discipline records were reviewed in January, March, and May to determine social progress. The reading posttest was administered in May to determine the reading progress.
An analysis of the data revealed that 74% of the students who participated in Project Support successfully passed 5 or more classes to be promoted to the 10th grade. There were fewer discipline referrals for the targeted students for the 2002-2003 school year compared to 2001-2002 targeted group. However, there were no changes in reading scores. Students’ posttests results remained the same as their pretest results.