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Azadeh Noorbaloochi, Martha Perez, Meg Paisley**
 * EDC 529, Summer 2006

=Spanish Speaking Students' Dropout Rates=


 * Introduction**

US Department of Education reported Hispanics having the highest dropout rates in the nation. In a more recent report US Department of Education(2004) reported the disparities between the dropout rates of newly arrived immigrants (43.1% dropout rate) and first generation US born Hispanics(15% dropout rate). Research shows that the most effective intervention programs for high school completion are those that link graduation to college matriculation by including after-school academic preparation and tutoring, along with SAT test preparation classes (National Research Council, p.210-211). This disparity might be due to many factors, like the lack of experience with the US education procedures, Socio economic status, family background and the lack of English proficiency of the Hispanic students.

In an attempt to find effective and undemanding ways to decrease the dropout rates of the newly arrived Spanish speaking students, we looked at the effects of an intensive English class offered after school, on the students’ desire to complete high school.

Is there a statistically significant difference in dropout rates between high school Spanish speaking students who participate in an intensive English class and those who only attend the English classes offered by School?
 * Research Question:**


 * //Independent variable://** intensive English classes (after School).
 * //Dependent variable//:** dropout rates


 * Hypotheses:**

//**Null Hypothesis**//: There will be no significant difference in dropout rates between Spanish speaking students who participate in an intensive English class and those who only attend the English classes offered by School?


 * //Non-directional://** There will be a statistically significance difference in dropout rates in Spanish speaking high school students who attend intensive English classes and students who only attend regular English classes.


 * //Directional://** Spanish speaking students who attend intensive English classes will show a significant decrease in dropout rates compared to students who only attend the regular English class offered by school.


 * Literature Review:**

Hispanics have the highest high school dropout rate (28 percent in 2000) compared with blacks and whites, however these rates are inflated by recent increases in teenage Hispanic immigrants who never enroll in US schools (Fry, 2003). Almost half of Mexicans (between the ages of 15-17) who have arrived in the united states in the early 1990s did not enroll in school (Hirschman, 2001). US department of education reported that 43.1 percent of foreign born Hispanic students did not complete high school compared with only 15 percent of US born Hispanic students (2003).

About 40 percent of Hispanic students attend high school in which the overall graduation rate is less than 60 percent, these schools are concentrated in large urban school systems, such as New York, Chicago and California (Tienda & Mitchell, 2006). This data supports the idea of Hispanic students’ educational disadvantages in comparison to the others. These schools are often ill equipped in academic resources and teachers informed of the cultural differences leading to a lack of meaningful student teacher relationships. Combining these factors with Hispanic students’ initial disadvantages such as socioeconomic status, parents’ lack of knowledge of US education systems and low English proficiency of the Hispanic students, gives meaning to the low high school attainment of these students and raises national concern (Tienda & Mitchell, 2006).

Although the data from National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP, 2003) shows a slight increase(with no statistically significance) in Hispanic students’ reading scores from 1975 to 1999 with the exception of 1992 decrease in scores, their performance remains lower than that of white students (a gap of 28 points, about 13%). Research also shows that Hispanic children are less likely to be read to, be told a story or visit a library in 1999, these three activities have shown to aid language acquisition and reading performance (NCES, 2003). This factor is also more visible in Hispanic students from non-English-speaking home environments.

In efforts to support the education of Spanish speaking students, parental involvement and resources outside school time, have been identified as strong contributors of students’ achievement in school. In 1999, 77% of Hispanic students attended public schools assigned to them (5% enrolled in private schools and 18% who attended public schools chosen by their parents), therefore the concerns are focused on achievement levels of Hispanic students attending assigned public high schools, after school tutoring programs are in place in many states and schools (NCES, 2003).

This study intends to look at an intensive English class offered after school, and its effects on high school dropout rates of Hispanic students. The data on the lower socioeconomic status, low parental involvement, lack of technological resources and high rates of alcohol and drug use in Hispanic students (NCES, 2003), calls for an inexpensive (due to financial difficulties) intervention program requiring student attendance (to keep students in a supportive educational environment) and minimal requirement for parent involvement, where computers and technology resources are available to students for some hours each day. An intensive English class satisfies the above criteria, without emphasis on any labeled limitations on Hispanic students, other than their English knowledge which is a natural and expected trend for Spanish speaking students. The English class described above does not focus on what students don’t and can’t have; instead it emphasizes on an attainable subject (English proficiency) which might lead to lower dropout rates and also possibly help Spanish speaking students’ self efficacy and confidence levels.

//Convenience sample// of 50, 10th grade Spanish speaking students enrolled in an after school English class [treatment group]. //Random sampling// of another 50, 10th grade Spanish speaking students who are not enrolled in the after school English programs.
 * Sample:**

(This control group will be from the same public high schools, where the participants in the treatment group attend).


 * Data Collection:**
 * identifying the schools that participants in treatment group attend through a one item questionnaire
 * //Instrumentation:// Check participants’ enrollment status in high school at the end of 10th, 11th and 12th grade (document collection).

//Chi square:// We will be measuring the dropout rates of one population, chi square would be the appropriate to compare the dropout rates.
 * Data Analysis:**

//Threats to internal validity:// //Selection:// our treatment group is a convenience sample, this group might be more apt to stay in school based on their decision to enroll in an after school program.
 * Validity & Reliability:**

//Strengths:// By using the control group, we have tried to eliminate many of the threats to the internal validity. Also because we are not administering the treatment (students are already in the after school English program) we can eliminated the threat to the external validity of the study.
 * Strengths and weakness of the design**

//Weaknesses:// As research has shown, there are many more factors that can be accounted for Spanish speaking students’ achievement in school (e.g. Socioeconomic status, parent education, background, …), which we have not controlled for in this study.

//The benefits of doing this study qualitatively//: Qualitative study would enable the researchers a more in depth analysis of each participant and the other factors introduced above which might leave to students dropping out.


 * Distribution of duties**

Duties were distributed equally, we met several times at the College, to coordinate our ideas and agree on what we wanted to explore.

Martha: For me personally, it was a little difficult to get used to navigate through wikispaces, but once I got the idea it was easy, technology scares me at the begining. It definitelly made it easier to do the work. Thank you.

Azadeh: I really think this method should be used more often through out the university. The access is so much easier than Webct and it is very user friendly.


 * References:**

Fry, R. (2003) //Hispanic youth dropping out of U.S. schools: Measuring the challenge.// Washington DC: Pew Hispanic Center. Hirschman, C. (2001). The educational enrollment of immigrant youth, A test of the segmented-assimilation hypothesis. //Dempgraphy//, 3, 317-319.

National Research Council (2006). //Hispanics and the Future of America. Panel on Hispanics in the United States//. Maria Tienda and Faith Mitchell, eds. Committee on Population, Division of Behavioral and Social sciences and Education. Washington, DC; The National Academic Press. pp, 210-211

U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2002). //Dropout rates in the United States, 2000// (NCES 2002-114). Washington DC

U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2003). //Status and trends in the education of Hispanics// (NCES 2003-008). By Chrmaine Llagas. Project Officer: Thomas D. Snyder. Washington, DC

U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2003). //National Assessment of Educational Progress// (NAEP). Washington, DC

U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2004). //Dropout rates in the United States, 2001// (NCES 2005-045). Washington DC

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