The role of systemic public education in the retention and attrition of students placed at-risk: Closing or creating the achievement gap

Teachers, schools, school districts and states are fraught with far-reaching systemic policies and practices that perpetuate critical discrepancies in academic achievement for marginalized populations. Societal perceptions of race, class and gender maintain a status quo system of inadvertent bias towards students placed at-risk. This is evidenced by the continued existence of an achievement gap in American education. In light of theory concerning structural and cultural violence upon marginalized student populations, this study addresses the issue at its core---the student placed at-risk. Survey research of two-hundred and fifty adjudicated youth participants within the Alabama Department of Youth Services investigated the significance of their perceptions of schooling in their academic achievement, and whether any significant differences exist between perceptual types based on (a) the students' perceptions of their academic self-efficacy; (b) the students' perceptions of teacher caring behaviors; and (c) the students' perceptions of the culture of their schools. Results from correlation analyses indicated that there was no relationship between student perceptions and their academic achievement as measured by Test of Adult Basic Education (TABE). Likewise, findings indicated that there were no significant differences in students' perceptions of academic self-efficacy, teacher caring, school culture, and TABE performance in relation to age, gender, ethnicity or recidivism.