School Abandonment Research Articles

Socioeconomic inequalities in youth smoking in Brazil

ObjectiveThe contribution of smoking to socioeconomic inequalities in health is increasing worldwide, including in Brazil. Youth smoking may play an important role in the increasing social inequalities related to smoking....

THE “SCHOOL. MY CHANCE!” PROJECT – A CASE STUDY FOR PREVENTING PUPILS’ SCHOOL DROPOUT IN ROMANIA

Pupils’ school dropout could be defined as an early and final abandonment of school before graduation, which prevents the pupil from registering in the following stage of education, losing in this way the possibility of benefiting from a proper and higher education. The statistics show that, unfortunately, in recent years school dropout rates have been increasing among secondary school pupils. The University of Oradea and The Bihor County School Inspectorate, Romania, have implemented a project called “School. My chance!” The aim of the project was to prevent and reduce the phenomenon of early school leaving by 100 pupils. The pupils attended five schools in Avram Iancu, Bogei, Carasau, Les and Suncuius, all village in Bihor, Romania, and were identified with higher school dropout risks. This paper proposes to present the partial results obtained at the end of the first period of the project implementation – the second semester of the 2010 / 2011 school year. The sample was represented by those 100 pupils from the above mentioned schools, who were included in Cognitive Therapy, implemented with the help of the project. The method consisted of analysing and comparing the pupils' school marks at the beginning and at the end of the relevant period. The results proved that, after one school semester, the pupils' marks remained rather unchanged, but in a few specific cases (schools or school subjects) small progresses were made. These results can, however, be seen as a significant success, because in education it is very difficult to obtain some spectacular improvements in such a short time and the most important aim of our project was to help those pupils to remain in the formal learning system so that that the positive conditions were created for their personal development. Key words: formal learning system, prevention, school dropout, school performance.

“School retardation” in Mexico from 1920 to 1960: conceptual passages

Educational concepts, such as enrolment, attendance, passing or failing students, school retardation, and school desertion, which made it possible to describe the course of children through the school system, went through a gradual process, beginning in the second half of the nineteenth century and throughout the first decades of the twentieth. In the early 1960s, a systematic set of categories was distilled, with deserción (school abandonment) occupying a central place. This paper analyses the development of these categories in the first half of the twentieth century, maintaining the hypothesis that toward the end of the 1950s, a new semantics was systematised for classifying children’s course through school, which moulded and regulated the paths of schooling; the passage occurred from the psychometric and biotypological concepts of the 1920s to 1940s to concepts derived from economics and efficiency. The paper also analyses how this semantics, which originated in the school environment, spread to other social environments. For this purpose, it focuses on examples of the legal discourse aimed at regulating “juvenile delinquency” and proposes some reflections regarding the conceptual passages between fields.

Overcoming poor youth stigmatization and invisibility through art: A participatory action research experience in Greater Buenos Aires

Participatory Action Research (PAR) involves collaborative construction of knowledge among researchers and local actors. Collaboration is particularly challenging for researchers when working with subaltern populations, as we experienced in a PAR project shared with young people living in extreme poverty in the Greater Buenos Aires area. The objective was to promote educational rights, based on a participatory diagnosis of factors associated with school abandonment. The main challenge was young people’s reluctance to address their school experience, due to stigmatization processes associated with school failure. Video production and dramatization helped us to overcome this blockage and to make youth perspectives visible to other social actors in the educational field. The article discusses how this happened during the PAR process.

Migrant Hispanic Students Speak Up: Linguistic and Cultural Perspectives on Low Academic Attainment

The Hispanic population and their high school dropout rates in the United States have greatly increased over the last several decades. This study investigates linguistic and cultural issues that may have an association with high school abandonment among migrant Hispanic students. Open-ended interview questions were posed to a bilingual education administrator and four migrant Hispanic students in a small Midwestern high school in the United States. Participants reported that migrant Hispanic students are not prepared to live linguistically in the academic setting but merely to survive in it. From a cultural perspective, the data suggested that migrant Hispanic students can either allow social and cultural pressures within the school and community to negatively affect their educational engagement or they can acculturate with the dominant culture to minimize their “differentness.”

Identifying the Attitude of Healthy Individuals towards Disabled Children – A Chance to be Educated for all

Problem StatementThe main dimensions polarizing attitudes and behaviours of the implied actors in the education of disabled children are: the degree of tolerance and level of implication in their education. According to these two coordinates, we can distinguish four attitudinal and behavioural models: the emphatic model, the “militant” model, the apathetic model, the “routine” model. Recognizing these models, and seeing their percentage in social life, we can think to a solution and a program which will open a door to education in a natural school environment, and not as a special institution for disabled children. Purpose of StudyThis research started from the hypothesis according to which the lack of competence and specific instruments for working with these children makes it difficult for a real integration for these children in a school. In spite of this, we believe that through constructive conversations with healthy children in the same class with their disabled colleagues, with their parents. Moreover, with the help of the teachers we think we could change the existent negative opinion, offering a chance for education for disabled children, thus becoming an impediment for school abandonment. This research has been undertaken on a group of 90 people: children (boys and girls), teachers. FindingsThe purpose of this research was to emphasize that the lack of competence and specific instruments for working with disabled children makes it difficult for the real integration process of this children in school to occur. This becomes the main cause of school abandonment for disabled children, as well as their labeling and marginalization. ConclusionsThe adults within the system (teachers, school counselors) need a period of formation for working with disabled children. An efficient formation is, in the others opinion, one based on concrete examples, working models which can be easily implemented. For this, a special program would be necessary that will have certain activities. The participation of healthy children at the educational process, in the same time as their disabled colleagues, could increase the level of cohesion for the class and diminish the rate of school abandonment.

Italian as a second language. Experiences from a changing education environment

Italy can be considered as a new West European immigration-receiver country. Since the end of the 80s, this new phenomenon has confronted Italy along with its implications in terms of policy production. Integration policies play an important role in determining immigrants' social profile in the host country. Teaching Italian as a L2 is the starting point for education integration policies as a socialization instrument, auto-promotion and intercultural change. Despite the flourishing literature that has emerged in the last decade, little attention has been paid the transformations of the Italian school system due to the presence of immigrant students. As a matter of fact, the real challenge for the Italian school system does not only consist in the foreign students' integration through “linguistic emergence interventions”. It actually involves to a much larger extent the choice of an ad hoc pedagogical approach for the management of multi-cultural classes and the valorization of the individual in the education environment. This paper will briefly describe Italian integration policies in the school system and will focus on the teaching of Italian as a L2 in the areas where the local governments pay particular attention to the development of an efficient policy of alphabetization (Bologna, Florence, Milan). We will then concentrate on some central aspects of didactical methodologies in multi-cultural classes (Caon 2006) through the description of Cooperative Learning, Peer Tutoring and CLIL. An efficient pedagogical and didactical approach to Italian as a L2 constitutes a central instrument for the social and cultural integration of foreign students and for the prevention of school abandonment, particularly widespread among foreign students. Teaching an everyday-language, through the elaboration of a methodology based on the results of the linguistics studies on language acquisition, also plays an important role for the further teaching of the specific school-subjects based on micro- languages (Bics & Calp, Cummings 1986).

Social context of premarital fertility in rural South-Africa.

A qualitative study was conducted in Agincourt, a rural area of South Africa, to document the perceptions and attitudes towards premarital fertility and late marriage among young adults of both sexes. Two focus groups and 35 individual interviews were conducted among 17-30 year olds, randomly selected. Most interviewees perceived premarital fertility as undesirable, and a new phenomenon in a context of major social changes, in particular loss of authority of parents and increasing freedom of the youth. In contrast, late marriage was perceived as positive, by both sexes, primarily for economic reasons. Much stigma was associated with premarital fertility, from friends, institutions and families who occasionally apply mild or severe sanctions. Consequences of premarital fertility were numerous: school abandonment, economic adversity, health risks, stigmatization. In extreme cases, premarital fertility might lead to exclusion and deviant behavior. Premarital fertility was ultimately due to a lack of contraception among young women, and to refusal of abortion for religious reasons, and is associated with the risk of contracting STD's.

Who Are the Pregnant Adolescents in the Poorest State Capital of Brazil?

This study determines which adolescent girls are becoming pregnant. Cross-sectional study. Pregnant or puerpera adolescents in Teresina, Brazil (278), aged 15-19 years. Comparisons were made between the older and younger age groups of the Teresina sample and between the socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of the Teresina sample and ever-pregnant adolescents from the 1996 Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) sample. Descriptive analyses and Pearson's chi-square tests were performed. Compared with the 1996 DHS sample, there has been a social improvement manifested by a higher proportion attending school and a lower proportion of adolescent workers in the 2006 Teresina sample. In the 2006 sample, 60.2% of those attending school were below their grade for age level. The principal reason for school abandonment 10 years ago was marriage (24.4%) and that among the 2006 Teresina sample was pregnancy (44.9%). Girls who were 15-17 years old in the 2006 sample experienced menarche and sexual debut earlier than those who were 18-19 years old in the same sample. Adolescent pregnancies are likely to have an unfavorable long-term impact on adolescent mothers' lifestyle, even with some improvement since 1996. Effective programs for adolescent pregnancy prevention are needed to reduce the possibility of continuance of these trends for another 10 or more years in the future.

Health-related quality of life in patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis after treatment: short-term effects after brace or surgical treatment, a comment

We have read with great interest the article published by Bunge EM and colleagues [1] about short-term effects regarding health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients affected by adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) after a brace or surgical treatment. Recently, we performed a similar study about long-term effects on HRQoL in surgically or conservatively treated patients affected by scoliosis between 45°–60° Cobb and we believe we can provide a further contribution to this important topic. We have reviewed 840 clinical histories of patients treated for scoliosis (between 45°–60° Cobb) from 1975 to 1985 at the Fondazione Don C. Gnocchi (Rome). Of the initial population (840 patients), 98 showed a scoliosis with 45°–60° Cobb, 13 out of these 98 refused to participate in this study, 64 were untraceable, and the remaining 21 patients agreed to participate in this study giving their informed consent. Ten patients were surgically treated (SURG) and 11 received a conservative treatment (CONS). In terms of gender, 20 of the patients were women and 1 was man; and the mean age at follow-up was 36.7 ± 4.7 years (range 20–31 years). The conservative treatment consisted of the use of: plaster cast in one patient; plaster cast and Lyonnais in three patients; plaster cast, Lyonnais and Milwaukee brace in five; plaster cast and Milwaukee in one; Lyonnais in two patients; Milwaukee brace in one; and all treatments presented in eight patients. All the patients were instructed to wear their braces for about 20 h per day. In addition, all CONS patients underwent a rehabilitation program based on a postural re-education method. Wearing over was initiated when the patient’s curve had not progressed on two successive visits and the patient was judged skeletally mature. The brace period was mean 5.2 years (range ±3.4). With regard to SURG cases, after surgery, all patients wore a plaster brace and performed a rehabilitation program based on a postural re-educational method. Note that, the surgical treatment was always indicated in patients with a documented progression (Cobb angle between 45° and 60°) and expected remaining skeletal growth. Our 11 CONS patients had refused the surgical treatment and they chose the conservative management. At follow-up each patient underwent a multidimensional protocol including an anamnestic evaluation (school abandonment, current employment, sport practices, occurrence of pregnancy, menarche and abortions, cervicalgy and headache) physical examination (rib-hump measuring, sagittal and coronal alignment), radiological evaluation (using the Cobb technique), disability evaluation (Barthel Index and Deambulation Index), HRQoL and back pain evaluation (the Short Form-36 Health Survey [SF-36], NASS scale, Backill Scale and Visual Analogue Scale). As expected, comparing the two groups, we have observed: (1) an higher brace period in CONS group (P = 0.005); (2) a more severe pre-therapy scoliosis degree in SURG group (mean value 59.2° in SURG group versus 50.4° in CONS group, P = 0.005) and (3) a more severe post-therapy scoliosis degree in CONS group (mean value: 54.4° in CONS group versus 37.5° in SURG group, P = 0.005). Moreover, we recorded an higher school abandonment in SURG group (P = 0.04) since the global treatment duration (about 25 years ago) resulted to be longer in SURG group. Regarding HRQoL, disability and pain, the comparison of the two groups at follow-up did not show statistical differences. Table 1 shows mean, SD and statistical results of disability and patient-oriented measures recorded in the two groups. Table 1 Mean, SD and statistical results of disability and patient-oriented measures recorded in the CONS and SURG groups With respect to the Bunge’s study we have reported a long-term follow-up. We have studied HRQoL aspects using the SF-36 showing significant correlation with the Scoliosis Research Society-22 Patient Questionnaire [2], adopted by Bunge in his study. Bunge and colleagues enrolled a larger sample of patients including also patients with scoliosis lower of 45° Cobb, and they divided their surgery patients into two subgroups: brace before surgery and only surgery (not possible in our for small sample). Our study, even if on a little sample, focuses the attention on patients with 45–60 Cobb degree. As Bunge observed in short-term follow-up, we did not found in long-term follow-up any significant differences in disability, HRQoL and pain in patients undergoing conservative or surgical treatment. In scoliosis patients, the curve between 40° and 50° is a issue still discussed during the therapy decision (bracing or surgery) and Bunge’s and our results can not support the preference of surgical treatment above the conservative treatment and viceversa.

55: Pregnancy recurrence during adolescence after multiprofessional prenatal care and postpartum mother-child follow-up

55: Pregnancy recurrence during adolescence after multiprofessional prenatal care and postpartum mother-child follow-up

Economic determinants of academic failure and school desertion in the Guatemala highlands

Guatemala's four major indigenous (i.e. ethnic) groups provide the setting for a model explaining elementary schooling discontinuity in terms of economic characteristics that might affect availability and quality of teaching facilities, perceptions of curriculum relevance, expectations of longterm gains and enhancement of employment alternatives through formal education, and children's opportunity cost. Least-squares coefficients and elasticities are estimated separately for academic failure and school abandonment for each indigenous group. The levels of statistical significance show that the model explains academic failure better than it explains school desertion. These levels differ among groups for the seven variables in the model, thus implying that a national indigenous policy that fails to incorporate in its structure features unique to each group may be inadequate.

Judicial intervention as policy: Impacts on population distribution and redistribution in urban areas in the United States

Two interrelated issues have increasingly occupied the attention of the courts, as judges, lawyers and expert witnesses wrestle with the issue of school desegregation and mandatory busing. The first of these issues concerns the extent to which there are causal relationships between schools and housing patterns, while the second issue revolves around the impact of mandatory busing on white flight (either as population relocation or public school abandonment). The courts have chosen to accept the tenuous argument of a causative relationship between schools and housing and to downplay the considerable impacts of their court orders requiring mandatory busing. These court orders have directly influenced population distributions and may affect population redistribution in the future.

Court Decisions in the School Plant Field

STUDIES BASED ON COURT DECISIONS in reference to the planning and construction of buildings were reviewed in Chapter V. Other legal research in the school plant field has been concerned with (a) tort liability and negligence, (b) use of property and school funds for purchase of property, (c) tax exemption and other aids to private schools, (d) title of property, (e) effect of alteration of school districts, (f) insurance, (g) abandonment and reversion of real property to the grantor, and (h) college and university property. Chambers (8) has reviewed some eighty-eight studies of legislation and court decisions in the school finance and business administration field, which included the bulk of the legal problems arising in and about the school plant. An annual review of court decisions, classified and arranged under convenient headings, may be found in the Yearbooks of School Law, which he edits. Less complete reviews of current decisions are published, from time to time, in the section on school law in the American School Board Journal. While many studies have been produced in the past three years which have brought up to date the report of the decisions on one question or another, the most comprehensive research in the general field is still Punke's work (43) published in 1936. Although the law could never be called static, most of the principles and trends determined by him have been reaffirmed.