Model Dropout Prevention Program at Reidsville Middle School: A Case Study Evaluation

This case study describes a 2-year (1988-90) demonstration dropout prevention program, a collaboration between a rural school and a university. The dropout prevention program attempts to identify effective teaching strategies that will increase the academic successes of at-risk sixth-grade students and expand the use of those strategies among the regular teaching staff at the middle school. The teachers often experienced frustration in dealing with at-risk students. Teachers blamed students and parents for the lack of achievement but rarely saw themselves as controlling or influencing students' academic success. During the first project year, a resource teacher saw two groups of at-risk students daily for a two-period math and science block. Students were randomly assigned to the program or to the control group. At the end of the year, project staff agreed that the 23 students involved in the program had benefited. For the following year, the program was expanded to involve all teachers and students in the school. During the second year, a home-school coordinator worked closely with 6 teachers and 20 at-risk students but was available to all students and teachers. The modifications shifted responsibility back toward the teachers and charged them with the task of changing practices to help at-risk students. Although some teachers looked to outside factors for the solution to classroom problems involving at-risk students, other teachers have taken responsibility in remedying the problem by modifying their practices in working with at-risk students. (LP)