Solutions to the Dropout Crisis: Student Engagement

1
Solutions to the Dropout Crisis Student
Engagement

• Eileen Coppola, Ed.D.
• Rice University Center for Education

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DisengagementRelated Causes of Dropping Out

• Early academic disengagement becoming one of the
  dumb kids
• Alienation meaningless work
• Absence of positive, authentic community
  cultural disconnects
• Oppositional identity This wont help me
• Punitive culture

3
Student Engagement A Definition

• Students are engaged when
• They see the school as a nurturing place
• They feel the adults care about them, understand
  them, act in their best interest
• They feel efficacious and competent in the school
  setting
• They find the core work meaningful and
  intrinsically interesting
• They are challenged but supported
• They feel part of a community
• They understand school as part of their identity
  and linked to their future, as well as the future
  of their family and community

4
Policies to Reconsider

• Punitive attendance and zero-tolerance policies
  for minor infractions
• Testing as the de facto driver of curriculum
• Grade retention
• Age-grade matching
• Large class sizes
• Culturally neutral, technocratic schools
• Fractured, non-intellectual faculty communities

5
Policy Proposals to Promote Student Engagement

• Individually paced learning and support
  re-examine grade retention
• Caring, community, and multicultural norms
• An exciting intellectual culture for teachers and
  students
• Interesting, important curriculum
• Positive, developmental discipline
• Formative assessment with feedback for learning
• Joy and curiosity, authenticity

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Helpful Resource

• Engaging Schools Fostering High School Students
  Motivation to Learn
• The National Academies Press, 2003
• http//books.nap.edu