A study of high school dropout rates in a Midwestern community

The purpose of this research study was to examine the contributing factors to the recent decrease in the rate of high school dropouts in a Midwestern community. Specifically, this study examined how different factors significantly affected whether students’ graduated from high school. For this study, students’ graduation rates, demographics (ethnicity, gender and native language), free/reduced lunch participation, attendance, cumulative grade point average (G.P.A.), major behavioral violations participation in extracurricular school activities and participation in outside agencies were used as variables to determine outcomes. This study used a secondary analysis of data provided by a Midwestern community school district. Participants were students that attended one of three public high schools in this district between 2007 and 2015. For the purpose of this study, the two graduating classes of 2011 and 2015 were examined to see how various demographic and educational variables related to these students potentially affect the graduation rate. The total population for the Class of 2011 was n= 494 and the Class of 2015 was n= 599 totaling N=1093. An analysis of demographic information was derived from a Chi-square Crosstabs test and completed to examine potential differences between the graduates of the Class of 2011 when compared with the Class of 2015 when viewing students’ graduation rates, free/reduced lunch participation, major behavioral violations and participation in extracurricular activities. In addition, a correlation analysis was presented for demographic and non-demographic variables using a Pearson’s Correlation Coefficients test. An Independent Samples T-Test was used to examine potential differences between the graduates of the Class of 2011 when compared with the Class of 2015 for association testing in students’ attendance and cumulative grade point average (G.P.A.). This study found a statistically significant difference between the graduates of the Class of 2011 when compared with the Class of 2015’s graduation rates, demographic characteristics (as measured by ethnicity and native language), participation in the free/reduced lunch program and major behavioral violations. However, there was not a statistically significant difference between the graduates of the Class of 2011 when compared with the Class of 2015’s demographic characteristics (as measured by gender), attendance, cumulative grade point average (G.P.A.) and extracurricular school activities