Date of Award
2012
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Abraham S. Fischler College of Education
Advisor
Lucille Beisner
Committee Member
Karen Kimball
Committee Member
Ronald P. Kern
Keywords
alternative programs, at-risk students, career education, conflict resolution, dropout prevention, General Educational Development (GED), GED programs, high school dropouts, nontraditional students, parent perspectives, program completion rates, school completion, student perspectives, student surveys, Work Plus Academics
Abstract
Students deal with conflicts every day. In their quest to survive peer pressure and other conflicts in their lives, they often find themselves at a crossroads where they have to solve dilemmas. Some of those dilemmas cause students to contemplate dropping out of school. Some schools have accepted the challenge of helping those students by creating alternative programs that give nontraditional students a way to complete their education. In one school district, a General Educational Development (GED) program named Work Plus Academics was created to assist at-risk high school students in completing their education. Even though the program has been in existence for several years, the percentage of completers was very low. This research identified ways to improve the completion rate of the students enrolled in the Work Plus Academics program.
The population of students for this applied dissertation study comprised the students in the Work Plus Academics program. The students were between the ages of 17 and 22 years, inclusive. The purpose of the student survey was to glean students’ perspectives on school in general and possible reasons for their not completing school in a traditional manner. Results of the survey were compared to other documentation that was gathered by the researcher and to results of previous research. The researcher analyzed appropriate school documents; collected and analyzed school data beginning with the 2006-2007 school year; conducted interviews with students, teachers, staff members, parents, and administrators; and consulted directly with the program administrator regarding evidence.
In the evidence that was collected during this research, the administrators will have information with which to improve the completion rate of the Work Plus Academics program. It is to be hoped that the evidence will assist in building the success of other high school GED programs.