Portraits of high school dropouts: lessons for school administrators

High school dropouts lose economically and personally as a result of not completing high school. Lost income in thousands of dollars each year and the human cost of not fulfilling their educational and personal potential exemplify the cost to dropouts and society. Many programs are designed and evaluated by school administrators to assist students to stay in school and complete their graduation. This study was designed to explore life stories of high school dropouts through developing detailed portraits of the students. The research studied eight high school dropouts who were currently students in a community college GED program. The eight student participants were each asked to participate in two in-depth interviews that resulted in the researcher’s creation of a portrait of each participant. Results from the two sessions provided emergent themes revealed through students’ stories about their lives and their school experience. The themes that emerge are: (a) living a satisfactory life for nearly 20 years yet having to obtain a GED; (b) extremely disturbing conditions at home, occurring even during elementary school years; (c) being sustained by religion; (d) parenthood causing a life change; (e) a talent or special interest that brightened the overall picture; (f) “I wish there would have been a Dr. Help,” and (g) resilience and hope through life.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ed.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Ed Organization and Leadership

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2013

Author dc:creator

• Young, Christine

Contributors dc:contributor

• Hunter, Richard C.
• Span, Christopher M.
• Witz, Klaus
• Alexander, S. Kern

• Portraits
• High School dropouts

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2013 Christine Young

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/45364

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/45364