Reducing Dropout Rate in Inner City Middle School Students Through Instruction in Self Control

Abstract

A growing number of educators and other social scientists have become aware that many of today's adolescents suffer from a low level of self control, which often results in lowered academic performance. A number of programs have been designed to alleviate this problem through teaching self control techniques. This study adapted several of these methods and organized them into a program of 14 one-period lessons in self control. The lessons were aimed at reducing the high dropout rate in Boston's public secondary schools.The lessons were administered in two Boston middle schools to 12 classes of 151 eighth graders. Nine of the classes were selected because the students in them were known to have serious problems controlling their behavior. The other three were ordinary classrooms. Two years after the completion of these lessons, the dropout rate of participants was found to be 14% which is nearly 40% less than the average rate of 23% for Boston's tenth graders.