| My study focused on addressing the problem of high school dropout rates affecting underprivileged Latino communities. Its purpose was to design an elementary intervention that successfully addressed factors identified by theoretical and empirical research that could impede Latino students from graduating from high school.;The project was designed for the student population at a small elementary school site located in a low-income community within a large urban school district. I used both qualitative and quantitative research methods in three interdependent phases. I began by conducting a survey questionnaire to understand parents' and school staff's perceptions about factors that can keep students from graduating from high school and their elementary school's ability to successfully address them. In the second phase, I collaborated with parents and staff members to design this program by taking quantitative and qualitative data as well as research into consideration. In the final phase, I and members of the AR team, elicited staff and parents' feedback in order to create a sustainable strategy that will encourage staff and parents to work together to proactively address barriers that can potentially keep Latino students from receiving a high school diploma.;Four key findings emerged in the course of this study. First, data from the survey showed that parents had a significantly lower level of understanding of factors that have been shown to correlate to students dropping out of high school than did the school staff. Second, I found that most parents, even those whose first language was not English, were interested in collaborating with teachers to address barriers at their school site that could potentially be hindering Latino students' ability to graduate from high school. Third, conducting the research led the action research team to create a school wide effort to increase parents' awareness and knowledge of the causes of students' dropping out through parent workshops and a bilingual newsletter. Finally, parents reported acquiring more knowledge about research that affects students' abilities to graduate from high school than did school staff participants. Both sets of stakeholders, however, acquired similar problem-solving skills during the action research process. |
