Students’ Initial Disconnect from School and Dropping Out of High School

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine if high school dropouts experienced adisconnect from school during their K-8 years, and to determine whether that disconnectfrom school led to their decision to drop out of high school. An additional purpose of thisstudy was to determine the extent high school dropouts believed there was something ateacher, principal, counselor, or other staff member could have done to prevent themfrom dropping out of high school. A quantitative research design was used in this study.Three research questions guided the current study: (1) To what extent do highschool dropouts experience an initial disconnect from school during their K-8 years? (2)To what extent does the initial disconnect experienced by high school dropouts duringtheir K-8 years lead to the decision to drop out of high school? and (3) To what extent dohigh school dropouts believe there was something a teacher, principal, counselor, or otherstaff member could have done to prevent them from dropping out of high school? Thepopulation of interest for this study included students enrolled in the Missouri OptionsProgram during the 2013-2014 school year in Raytown, Missouri. Research hypothesisone, High school dropouts experience an initial disconnect from school during their K-8years, and research hypothesis three, High school dropouts believed there was somethinga teacher, principal, counselor, or other staff member could have done to prevent themfrom dropping out of high school, were tested using a one-sample t test. Researchhypothesis two, High school dropouts’ initial disconnect during their K-8 years leads totheir decisions to drop out of high school, was tested using a chi-square test of equalpercentages. The results indicated there was not statistically significant difference for research question one or research question two. There was a statistically significantdifference for research question three.