Date of Award
2004
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Fischler Graduate School of Education and Human Services
Advisor
Carole Trueman
Committee Member
Keith Cameron
Committee Member
Maryellen Maher
Keywords
academic achievement, academic failure, afterschool programs, at-risk students, early intervention, Expanded Learning program, failure rates, inner city education, intervention outcomes, Marina Middle School, program evaluation, promotion rates, recreational activities, research-based programs, San Francisco Unified School District, student achievement, tutorial programs, urban education, 8th-grade students
Abstract
San Francisco Unified School District mandates a failure rate for 8th-grade students of less than 5%. In June 2001, 6% of Marina Middle School’s 8th-grade students had 4 or more final F grades. In the fall of 2001, 38% of the school’s 8th-grade students were identified as at risk. During the 2001-2002 school year, the Expanded Learning program was implemented to provide these at-risk students with research-based academic and recreational activities in an afterschool setting.
At the end of the intervention period, the failure rate for 8th-grade students at the school was reduced to 4%. Not all of the school’s 101 at-risk 8th-grade students participated in the Expanded Learning program, but of the 90 at-risk students who did participate in the program, 100% passed their classes and were promoted to high school. The 11 at-risk 8th-grade students who did not participate in the program earned 4 or more failing grades. Because no control group was utilized in this study, the successes achieved may not be attributed solely to the interventions offered in the Expanded Learning program. However, school administrators did find the positive impact of this program sufficient to warrant continuation and expansion of the program in the following school year.