Truancy in America

In this case study, first year third grade teacher, Maggie Lindberg, is having trouble controlling her class. The children are well-behaved during their art period. However, when Ms. Lindberg is in charge, they are highly uncontrollable. They talk when they are not supposed to talk and they don’t listen to anything that Maggie says. There’s supposed to be a nature walk/field trip and Ms. Lindberg’s class has yet to complete the task.

The research method used for this study was a survey distributed as a self-report questionnaire. Data were collected by giving the questionnaire to 3,065 male and female adolescents attending grades 7 through 12 in three midwestern states. The sample design consisted of two parts. First, schools were chosen within a participating school district, which was representative for size and location within the area. Second, two or three classrooms per grade level were chosen among the general enrollment classes. A small subset was also added from applicants who volunteered from the districts who were interviewed a few weeks before the questionnaire was administered (Akers, Lanza-Kaduce, & Radiosevich, 1979).

There are other factors associated with early school leaving. Researchers have focused on three different topics. First topic, student and family factors identified as contributing to dropouts is gender, racial, and ethnic minority status, low socioeconomic status, poor school performance, low self-esteem, delinquency, substance abuse, and pregnancy. In addition to this research has also gathered the impact of certain family characteristics, such as single-families,

After thoroughly reading the first factor, ‘Changes at School,’ I completely agree with the author Leonard Sax for the reasons boys are showing a lack of motivation in school. An example he states which I was able to connect with is the lack of real-world experiences in our curriculums. I completely agree with this point and can relate as I know all about the mechanics of a telescope and how it works, however, if I were given a one I would have difficulties using it. Moreover, I do believe that boys are in trouble as women continue to create greater gender gap. This is evident in the statistics as 64.8 percentages of women between the ages of 24 and 35 have post-secondary degrees and this number has consistently increased over the years. Whereas, 63.4 percent

Multiple categories were selected. It measured if students skipped class, skipped more than one class, or skipped an entire day. Furthermore, it asked about what those students did while being truent. This could range from nothing to participating in drugs or alcohol. It also measured their grades, how well they liked school, their parent or guardian likeness, and overall attachment to teachers and peers (Henry, 2010). After the surveys, the researchers found a prolific quarelation. Truent youth were less likely to live with both parents, they were on free and reduced lunches, the problems were not race or gender specific, and they had lower academic performace. If a student missed an entire day they were more likely to use drugs or alcohol compared to missing a class or more than one class. The reason they skipped school could be related to being under the influence after doing it the night before even. Suprisingly marijuana claimed fifty percent of those truent, alcohol was fourty-five percent, and other drugs were twenty-seven percent. Moreover, there are other reasons for youth to skip such as depression, family issues, having bad peer groups, etc. However, this can lead to students using drugs as well. It becomes a way out of their problems, but they are too young to realize the harm it is causing them (Henry,

Southwell talks about being a truant from personal experience when he was in school, and how it’s affected him. He demonstrates how truancy has contrary views, and specifies on what educational needs are to be worked on, such as having learning disorders such as dyslexia, homework help, and needing guidance about at-home situations. The three main causes of truancy according to Southwell are lack of the help that students receive in the environment and at school, fear of being made fun of because they ask for help with work, or being away from school so long with an illness. These causes can also be considered as cries of

The short-term effects are an increase in delinquent, criminal and gang activity. Long-term effects include poor physical and mental health, the continuance of family poverty and a high risk of addiction and incarceration”, (Effects of Truancy). Schools are recording truancy petitions and parents are being acquired into court a few urban areas. San Francisco alone there are 5000 children truant consistently. There are insufficient courts and insufficient prosecutors to compose sworn statements to address the quantity of truancies that occur every day in the United States. There should be a change of mentality toward the significance of training; an administration that deliberately persuades and illuminates society to reality about

Truancy is part of the school to prison channel, a system that the state tells schools to have an absolute zero tolerance for unexcused absences. Sending students to court, a criminal court and having them experience the feeling on being a criminal just for skipping class exposes our children and derail them to the world of being a criminal. Nathan Hecht asked the Judicial Council, the policy-making body for the state’s courts, “Playing hooky is bad, but is it criminal?” So why do we get to treat our young children as criminals

From the research up to 5 percent of children doesn't want to go to school, which can occur more common in children 5-10 years old. Somebody has negative behaviors such as crying, yelling and refusing everything about the school. This the problems have many reasons, for example, sometimes they are fear something bad will happen to them alone or they worry about getting out in front of the class. All the problem can be remedy by the

Data shows that a student’s dislikement of school could be the strongest predictor of if a student will complete school (High School & Beyond, Eskstern, 1996). There are many reasons that a student may become disengaged some of them are: overage for their grade level, they have adult responsibilities, family income, and socioeconomic status (Barro & Kolstad 1987). The question remains, how can disengaged students be encouraged to be successful in school (Bernstein & Willis, 1996,1997,1981,1983)? Cultural support of a student is an over-riding condition of resistance of engagement of school (McFadden & Munns 2000). Teachers seemed to be spending most of their time in the classroom trying to maintain control because the classrooms are filled

Another personal related problem is jobs. Most students are working part-time in order to support themselves and their family which at times will lead to intrusion with school hours, home works, no time for studying especially to major exams and various school activities which otherwise leads to failing grade. Peer pressure is also another factor wherein these students are being led to bad influences such as drinking, drug which causes a major side effect to students (Schwartz, 1995). Schools do this in order to handle their problem. Students from broken homes are also likely to drop out of school due to the stressful situation that they have to go through and thus affect their concentration in school. Furthermore, most students who dropped out of school don't like school to begin with. These students will rebel and do anything against the school rules in order to be kicked out (Schwartz, 1995). They are likely to fail on their subjects, doesn't get along with other students, and have disciplinary problems. Oftentimes, disciplinary actions are taken before they are dropped out.

The independent variables in this study are the intervention program and the judicial involvement. The dependent variable is the attendance of the two groups of sample students during the second semester of school, after they have either attended intervention or been processed by the court system.

For those who are growing up in the Corner neighborhood, truancy is a common factor among several teens and young children. The Martin Luther King Jr. Recreation Center and its frequent visitors could benefit from a prevention/promotion program that focuses on graduation incentives for students. While the MLK Jr. Center is an appropriate outlet for after school, a program that expands the center past its current

If the child feels that, they do not have a chance in school this may lead to them dropping out. In this situation, the child does not have a chance to build a steady relationship with the teacher for support. Another factor that can affect a child and what they learn can be peer groups. If the child is hanging around with a group that has antisocial behavior then they can fall into the trap of being bad because it is cool. The bad crowd can lead any child to deviant behavior and down the wrong path. The more violent the group the more likely the child will be to commit serious crime to impress their friends.

There is a sense that parents fear truancy as if it were an infectious disease