Date of Award

5-2022

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

Department

Education

First Advisor

Dr. Graham Weir

Second Advisor

Dr. Sherrie Wisdom

Third Advisor

Dr. John E. Jackson

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to analyze the implementation of the School Improvement Grant using the Turnaround Model to improve student academics, by looking at attendance, and drop out and graduation rates on ninth-grade achievement in Missouri. In the United States, within our urban schools, high school drop-out has been a serious, national crisis, which effects the graduation rate. Dropping out of high school has many unfavorable results that have negative effects on the economy, such as employment, crime, personal earnings, and health, such as in the lack of insurance. Students exhibit problems before they enter high school. Thus, as ninth graders, they struggle and often fall behind in this grade. Student outcomes in the ninth grade can be very detrimental to the graduation rate. Many more students fail this grade than any other grade in high school. Ninth grade establishes the tone, is the foundation for graduating high school and has the greatest effect on high school graduation.

A conglomerate of reasons exist that affect this problem in the United States, such as lack of parental involvement, school leadership, socioeconomics, demographics, inadequate educational standards and assessments, poverty among different ethnicity groups, and inadequate funding in education on the local district and state levels, indicating a reason to address the academic needs of our students. In previous years, the federal government established programs to address this problem. No Child Left Behind was an initiative that attempted to narrow the achievement gap between underprivileged students and high achieving students. Too many students were not graduating. To further address this problem, the School Improvement Grant, served as a vehicle for states, beginning in 2010-2011 to turnaround schools that had performed in the bottom 5% for five consequently years.

For this study, two mid-western public high schools that received the SIG were Lewis M. Kyles High School, an urban high school and Samuel Lewis High School, a county high school. Both high schools implemented the Turnaround Model to turnaround student academic achievement. The research conducted was a quantitative study using secondary data collected from Missouri-Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. The data represented were attendance rate, graduation rate, dropout rate, the number of discipline referrals, total enrollment numbers, the number of free and reduced lunch participants, and the Missouri MAP state assessment scores.

Rights

Copyright 2022, Juanita Chambers

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