At Risk Students

LeaderTalk Blog has a post that discusses four characteristics of students at risk of dropping out.

1. Unresolved security issues - Students feel unsecure. They may not have a steady home life, source of food, money and other basic necessities.

2. Feelings of Insignificance - Related to self-esteem. They have few reasons to believe in themselves or see possibilities

3. Academic Frustrations - School is difficult and have little resources for dealing with the frustration

4. Situational Unawareness - Student is not objectively aware of grades, marks, attendance and/or behaviour

Students who are at risk typically demonstrate one or more of these characteristics.

The difficulty is how the school staff can help in these four areas. Looking for methods that can help with this. Unfortunately, some solutions may be specific to a particular child.

An article in the CASS Connection entitled, "Measuring Students' Orientation to School to Improve High School Completion" authored by Anna Nadirova, John Burger, and Randy Clarke of Alberta Education and Carmen Mykula, Parkland School Division. (CASS Connection, Spring 2008, page 30-33) found interesting results.

1. They found that top students (in both elementary and junior high) scored high in their feeling that the school is safe and caring, self-confidence, external resilience, peers, extra-curricular, school unitlity and internal resilience.

2. Medium range students were near average for all these except internal resilience which was low.

3. At Risk students scored low in everything except that internal resilience is high.

The authors recommend that schools:

• promote a strong sense of respect for students and promote the belief that all students can succeed.

• bullying and harassment issues are responded to immediately

• there is a high level of expected results for all students, while individual student learning styles are taken into consideration in lesson design and classroom instruction

• provision is made for students to be mentored and/or tutored during school hours.

Alberta High School Completion Symposium

Held in Edmonton Sept. 24-25, 2006 this symposium was held to discuss the implications, causes and remedies of high school drop out rates in Alberta.

Why don't some students complete high school?

Student Factors • lower academic abilities, lower marks, lower self-esteem, and less confidence in their ability to learn and succeed at school • skipping school, being suspended or being in trouble at school • lack of involvement in school, including little or no participation in extracurricular activities • learning disabilities, physical disabilities, or mental illnesses such as depression or bi-polar disorder • drug and/or alcohol use • inadequate language skills

Family Factors • live in a single parent family • parents don't believe that completing high school is important • family income is low • family moves frequently • need to look after family matters (including young women who become pregnant)

School Factors • little flexibility in programs or limited choices in courses that are of interest to the student, or no knowledge of those choices • lack of effective mentors in schools • finding school boring and irrelevant • experiences with bullying or racism • programming or teaching approaches that don't match the student's learning styles and preferences • negative relationships with teachers and other students

Frankin Schargel: Schargel Consulting Group

Are students at-risk or are they non-traditional learners?

Factors contibuting to Truancy

School Factors: • Lack of effective and consistently applied attendance policies • poor record keeping, making truancy difficult to spot • push-out policies like suspension as a punishment for truancy • parents/guardians not notified about absences • teacher characteristics like lack of respect for students and ignoring diverse student needs • unwelcoming school culture • inadequate identification of special education needs

Home and Community Factors: • family health or financial concerns • child is a victim of abuse or neglect • pressures arising from teen pregnancy or parenting • safety issues • parental alcoholism or drug abuse • negative role models • parents do not value education and are complicit in student's absences

Personal Student Factors: • Poor academic performance, sometimes due to special education needs, and a resulting lack of self-esteen • unmet mental health needs • alcohol and drug abuse • lack of vision of education as a means to achieve goals

Components of Effective Truancy Reduction Programs • parent involvement, or whole family involvement • a continuum of supports, including meaningful incentives for good attendance and consequences for poor attendance • colloboration among community stakeholders such as law enforcement, mental health workers, mentors, and social service providers • concrete and measurable goals for program performance and student performance. Good record keeping and on-going evaluation of progress toward those goals.

Practical Tips for Educating At Risk Youth

Baker, A. Educating At Risk Youth: Practical Tips for Teachers. Northwest Regional Educational Lab. Portland, OR. Education and Work Program. 1990

This article is a listing of ideas collected from teachers who were deemed successful with youth. The article breaks the ideas into different areas: curriculum, methodology, counseling and advocacy, community partnerships, and transistions.

Two critical assumptions are made in this article: there must be visible support for the efforts of teachers and second that the most qualified teachers for working with at-risk youth are given that assignment.

I've listed some the ideas that are most significant to me.

Administration • most empathetic, caring, dedicated and dauntless teachers are put with at-risk youth • maximize opportunities for information, inservice and insights for these teachers • lowest teacher to student ratio, use people from any place you can get them • encourage teachers to use techniques that address the personal needs of the students • publically recognize the teachers for their success • encourage non-traditional ways for students to earn credits • create a culture that models what the students may be missing: warmth, cheerfulness, enjoyment of learning, and social and personal bonding • the teachers' main objective is to gain the students' trust and respect

Curriculum • post articles from newspapers in the class to show how the topic can relate • use students' names in math problems or other hypothetical situations • put up goals for the week as well as for the day • connect things the students learn to the fact that they will become wage earners • give the students choices about their work

Methodology • Communicate as often as possible with other adults who work with the students inside and outside the school • model behavior you expect from the students such as loyalty, flexibility, willingness to listen, caring and a cheerful attitude • actively involve students in learning • great students by name • let them know the requirements for the teacher's sanity • give daily feedback on the student's work • let the students know if you are having a bad day- perhaps on the scale of 1 to 10. Ask them where they are on the scale

Counseling and Advocacy • make each student feel comfortable and wanted in the classroom • each student completes a personal support network chart with names and phone numbers

Community Partnerships • seek out the most interesting and committed people in your community to be role models • know which students are working and get to know their employers

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