Techniques Feb 2013 - 25

At-risk Students

By Amie Bloomfield, John Foster, Carol Hodes, Patrick Konopnicki and Sandra Pritz

R

ecent studies reported by
the U.S. Department of
Education reveal that over
one million American
students drop out of high school annually.
While students have different reasons
for dropping out of school, two leading
factors include lack of interest and lack
of educational support. When teachers
are prepared to teach and do it using an
engaging, meaningful and contextual
method, the chances of retaining students,
particularly those who are at-risk, has a
greater chance of increasing. A key part
of a teacher’s preparedness relates to the
tools available to assist in instructional delivery and analyzing results for individual
and program improvement.

technical education (CTE) programs and
schools manifest on a daily basis. Because
students’ work is based on competencybased technical profiles, the learning is
personalized and typically creates a closer
relationship with an adult mentor (the student’s teacher) than in a regular classroom
setting.
Plank et al. mention the benefit of
matching the student’s skills and interests
and blending the academic and career
technical curricula to keep students
engaged in school.5 In their longitudinal
study of six high schools, the main finding
of researchers Castellano et al. was that
the odds of dropping out declined with an
increased proportion of CTE courses in
high school.6

Keeping Kids in School

Virginia Beach City Public Schools

Heckman and LaFontaine state that
the high school graduation rate is “a
barometer of the health of American
society and the skill level of its future
workforce.”1 Researchers like Russell
Rumberger cite growing numbers of
dropouts, with the causes of the dropping
outs being varied and subjected to much
recent research.2 Jordan et al. find two
main predictive factors to be family
characteristics (e.g., the presence of both
biological parents and the family’s assets)
and peer influences.3
Paola Nogeura’s research on minority youth has found that characteristics
of schools with higher graduation rates
are having a strong positive relationship
between teachers and students, personalized learning experiences, mentoring
and counseling, plus other support to
deal with problems that arise.4 These are
attributes that the majority of career and

Virginia Beach City Public Schools
(VBCPS) is the largest school system
in southeastern Virginia, serving over
69,000 students in grades K–12. The
school system serves a diverse population
as shown in Table 1.
The VBCPS system can be viewed as
a microcosm of the nation as a whole. For
the last 18 years, VBCPS has successfully
impacted the dropout rate by employing
several common and effective strategies
of successful CTE. One of these strategies is a focus on obtaining an industry
credential. Generally speaking, obtaining
an industry credential adds a common,
tangible goal that students, parents,
teachers and administrators can collectively embrace.

www.acteonline.org

Industry-recognized Credentials
In a study of industry-recognized
credentials in high school, Castellano

et al. were cautious about ascribing an
important role to the credentials, but
mainly because few students in their
study seemed to be aware of the opportunities. They state that those who were
pursuing certifications seemed to have
a deep understanding of their career
direction and how to achieve their goals,
which suggests that such opportunities
related to CTE programs can keep students engaged in school. It was noted that
opportunities to gain certifications bring
“real-world” standards and expectations,
along with workplace-level technical skill
instruction, to the high school.7 This corresponds to the finding in the 2006 Gates
Foundation Report which indicates that
when interviewed, 81 percent of dropouts
said there should be more opportunities
for “real-world” learning so that students
can see the connection between school
and getting a job.8 As shown in the next
section, the focus in VBCPS has been to
employ strategies that heighten students’ engagement by linking real-world
instruction to credentials, and making
them fully aware of the opportunities that
credentials represent.
A 2012 series of reports on student
motivation from the Center on Education
Policy found four dimensions of motivation: competence, control/autonomy,
interest/value and relatedness. The interplay of these dimensions may result in the
extrinsic motivation of certifications, a
desire to achieve because it will produce
a certain result.9

Establishing a Culture of Success
As recent research suggests, the pursuit
of common goals (e.g., credentials) is
a strategy for dropout prevention—a
February 2013  Techniques  
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Techniques Feb 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Techniques Feb 2013
