Dropout Prevention in Theory and Practice.
James M. McPartland · 1993
This paper presents a four-fold typology developed as a general theory of student motivation to stay in school and work hard at learning tasks. Each of the four-fold categories is described with an initial statement of the specific source of student motivation, an analysis of how the source fits in more general motivational theories, and how the experiences of poor and minority students make them especially at risk for lacking motivation. The four-fold categories that are discussed involve the opportunities that exist for success in schoolwork, the human climate of caring and support, the relevance of school to a student's community and future, and the help that is given in attaining freedom from personal problems. Analysis of a sample of dropout students is presented that shows activities designed to prevent them from dropping out are not up to the task. This is because the tasks are not basic or intense enough to reform the primary causes identified by educational theories of low student motivation to remain in high school. Reforms are needed to change the atmosphere from the current emphasis on controlling and sorting students to a new emphasis on supporting and caring for individual learners through major modifications in the roles and responsibilities of teachers and students, including services geared toward assisting students wirh outside problems. (Contains 27 references.) (GLR) *********************************************************************** * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * * from the original document. * *********************************************************************** Dropout Prevention in Theory and Practice James M. McPartland Johns Hopkins University Center for Research on Effective Schooling for Disadvantaged Students OA. 00A1011.01 Of 100C/M014 ONO col EducstaroOltsseste, spe tostowesolo 10OCKO00040%A 00400100 \11(rs 0000 1%0 lin 090004 $s scovod tles. Os pstsoo of ottostotstton 0 toode,o, cuttorpown so;v:11:0 et, OW to 0000 ot deco.% Otteetroa A. i 4°,514. °MI:WA t ottica t.tila 6e Mon ot ooucy OEM fob 2 BEST CM' iiVLABLE 1 Is there a small set of common themes in the various explanations for why certain students drop out of school and in the panoply of current programs to reduce these risks? Such an organizing scheme would be useful for both theory and practice, going beyond the usual categories of demographic risk factors to better understand students' own reasons for staying in school and giving school planners a more comprehensive check-list of program components needed to increase the holding power of schools. A small set of program components with high priority in a clear theory of dropout prevention would also be useful in evaluating data on current dropout prevention efforts in American schools. This chapter will present a four-fold typology developed as a general theory of student motivation to stay in school and work hard at learning tasks. To show its usefulness in organizing a rich array of ideas and potential solutions, major themes developed in other chapters of this volume and practical dropout prevention approaches described earlier will be located within this typology. In addition, recent national survey data on high school dropout programs for at-risk students will be analyzed to validate the typology's categorization of dropout prevention approaches and to describe how well actual practice meets the needs indentified in theory. I. A typology of sources of student motivation to stay in school. School officials designing a dropout prevention program for their own locality cannot easily learn from the experiences of others who attempted the same thing, because each of the numerous written accounts of such efforts stands alone as a case study combining different features into aunique program for the given situation. It is unlikely that a gm= developed elsewhere can be duplicatdd exactly in another site, because local talents and priorities for school reform, the