The concept of school engagement has attracted increasing attention as representing a possible antidote to declining academic motivation and achievement. Engagement is presumed to be malleable, responsive to contextual features, and amenable to environmental change. Researchers describe behavioral, emotional, and cognitive engagement and recommend studying engagement as a multifaceted construct. This article reviews definitions, measures, precursors, and outcomes of engagement; discusses limitations in the existing research; and suggests improvements. The authors conclude that, although much has been learned, the potential contribution of the concept of school engagement to research on student experience has yet to be realized. They call for richer characterizations of how students behave, feel, and think—research that could aid in the development of finely tuned interventions

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/3516061.pdf

School Engagement: Potential of the Concept, State of the Evidence

The development of competence holds great interest for parents and society alike. This article considers implications from research on competence and resilience in children and adolescents for policy and interventions designed to foster better outcomes among children at risk. Foundations of competence in early development are discussed, focusing on the role of attachment relationships and self-regulation. Results from studies of competence in the domains of peer relations, conduct, school, work, and activities are highlighted. Lessons are drawn from studies of naturally occurring resilience among children at risk because of disadvantage or trauma and also from efforts to deliberately alter the course of competence through early childhood education and preventive interventions. Converging evidence suggests that the same powerful adaptive systems protect development in both favorable and unfavorable environments.

http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/amp/53/2/205.pdf

The development of competence in favorable and unfavorable environments. Lessons from research on successful children

Research on dropping out of school has focused on characteristics of the individual or institution that correlate with the dropout decision. Many of these characteristics are nonmanipulable, and all are measured at one point in time, late in the youngster’s school career. This paper describes two models for understanding dropping out as a developmental process that may begin in the earliest grades. The frustration-self-esteem model has been used for years in the study of juvenile delinquency; it identifies school failure as the starting point in a cycle that may culminate in the student’s rejecting, or being rejected by, the school. The participation-identification model focuses on students’ “involvement in schooling,” with both behavioral and emotional components. According to this formulation, the likelihood that a youngster will successfully complete 12 years of schooling is maximized if he or she maintains multiple, expanding forms of participation in school-relevant activities. The failure of a young...

Withdrawing From School

A sample of 1,803 minority students from low-income homes was classified into 3 groups on the basis of grades, test scores, and persistence from grade 8 through Grade 12; the classifications were academically successfully school completers ("resilient" students), school completers with poorer academic performance (nonresilient completers), and noncompleters (dropouts). Groups were compared in terms of psychological characteristics and measures of "school engagement." Large, significant differences were found among groups on engagement behaviors, even after background and psychological characteristics were controlled statistically. The findings support the hypothesis that student engagement is an important component of academic resilience. Furthermore, they provide information for designing interventions to improve the educational prognoses of students at risk.

Academic success among students at risk for school failure

Prior research on dropouts has often focused on high schools and examined the issue from either the individual perspective or the institutional perspective. Using data from the National Educational Longitudinal Survey of 1988 and a new form of hierarchical linear modeling (HLM), this study focuses on dropouts from middle school and examines the issue from both individual and institutional perspectives. At the individual level, the results identified a number of family and school experience factors that influence the decision to leave school, with grade retention being the single most powerful predictor. But disaggregating the analysis also revealed that there are widespread differences in the effects of these factors on White, Black, and Hispanic students. At the institutional level, the results revealed that mean dropout rates vary widely between schools and that most of the variation can be explained by differences in the background characteristics of students. But restricting the analysis to lower SES ...

Dropping Out of Middle School: A Multilevel Analysis of Students and Schools

Arguing that educators have little control over a dropout’sbackground characteristics, Gary Wehlage and Robert Rutter probe the High School and Beyond data for insights into the characteristics of students’ school experiences that may contribute to dropping out and that might be altered through policy interventions. Dropout rates of 40 and 50 percent from the nation’s central city high schools are now being reported. l While most public schools have a much lower dropout rate, the magnitude of the problem nationwide has caused concern among educators and policymakers. In general this concern is based on the prediction that serious economic and social consequences will result for those who fail to obtain a high school diploma. Moreover, it is argued that the civic and economic welfare of the nation is dependent on a universally high level of education attainment. Thus for the benefit of both individuals and society, it is assumed that youth should remain in school until high school graduation. Although the school dropout rate has been on the rise in recent years, viewed historically it is relatively low even today. In 1900, for example, about 90-percent of the male youth in this country did not receive a high school diploma. By 1920 the noncompletion rate for males was still 80 percent, and it was not until the 1950s that the dropout rate fell below 50 percent. By the mid to late 1960s the dropout rate reached its low point, and since then the rate for early school leaving has risen. California illustrates the recent trend.

/pdf/dropping-out-how-much-do-schools-contribute-to-the-problem-10oy26wtky.pdf

Dropping Out: How Much Do Schools Contribute to the Problem?

The myth of educational reform: A study of school responses to a program of change

The marginal high school student: defining the problem and searching for policy☆

Accountability: Critique and alternative perspective

/pdf/community-collaboration-and-the-restructuring-of-schools-279cxjfeh8.pdf

Gary G. Wehlage

Papers

Dropping Out: How Much Do Schools Contribute to the Problem?

The myth of educational reform: A study of school responses to a program of change

The marginal high school student: defining the problem and searching for policy☆

Accountability: Critique and alternative perspective

Community Collaboration and the Restructuring of Schools.