Kuhlman, Jeanne A.
Abstract:
American schools have been tasked to ensure students are prepared for success inlife after graduating from high school due to the increasing demands of educationallegislation, such as the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015. In response, many schoolshave implemented in-school academic supports to help attain this goal. However, it isunclear if these in-school academic support programs are worthy of their time within analready crowded schedule of a typical large public high school. This qualitative study,guided by a central question and 3 supporting research questions, sought to obtainteachers’ perceptions of in-school academic support time programs, specifically theutilization, challenges and outcomes of the programs. Individual interviews with 12teachers from 2 large Midwest public high schools were conducted. An analysis of theresponses from the individual interviews resulted in 4 findings and 10 themes. The studyfound that the in-school academic support program is used for both academic and nonacademic purposes. Challenges of the program arise mostly from the non-academicelements of the programs, and outcomes were perceived as positive for both the academicand non-academic aspects of the program. Overall, teachers liked the inclusion of the inschool academic support time within the schedule but offered advice to structure theprogram on a commonly agreed purpose to attain buy-in and success for the in-schoolacademic support time program.