Staying at High School in Victoria

Résumé du livre

This publication from Australia reports on an investigation directed at possible explanations of why students in the state of Victoria remain to complete secondary school, and why schools themselves vary in their capacity to retain students to year 12. Chapter 1 provides perspectives on this topic from past research and identifies three domains of school influence on student retention as the focus of the study: student attitudes, curriculum, and organization. Chapter 2 describes the methodology, which consisted of complementary broad- and narrow-based approaches: identification of differences between schools as a whole, selection of 16 schools for further study, qualitative methods, and questionnaires. Chapter 3 presents findings on differences between schools, including trends in average school retention rates, factors associated with differences, and patterns of change between 1982 and 1983. Chapter 4 focuses on characteristics of the 16 schools selected for further study, and the results of this intensive study are reported in chapters 5 and 6. Chapter 7 reports findings from interviews and followup studies with former students, parents, and teachers at these schools. Chapter 8 summarizes findings of the study as a whole, including differences between schools, the 16 schools, students' perspectives, factors influencing the intention to stay in school, the role of individual characteristics in this intention, and implications for future research and policymaking. (TE)