$300,000 over three years to The Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk at The University of Texas at Austin to support the development, implementation and evaluation of Preventing School Dropout with Secondary School Students research project, a drop out prevention program aimed at Texas students in grades 9 and 10. The Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk is an organized research unit within the University of Texas at Austin. The purpose of the Meadows Center is to reduce educational risk and contribute to the knowledge-to-practice information required to improve access to higher education for students traditionally under represented (e.g., low income, minority students).
The proposed three-year grant is a drop out prevention program aimed at grades 9 and 10 involving initially students located in two school districts (Manor in Austin; and Houston Independent School District). The intervention involves combining two essential elements of drop out prevention that heretofore have not been intertwined and evaluated: (a) improving outcomes in reading so that students have access to knowledge, and (b) implementing a check and connect procedure to assure students come to school and engage in learning. Though the grant proposes to develop, implement, and evaluate the effectiveness of this drop out prevention approach, the long-range intention is much larger and that is to influence policy in Texas with respect to developing state-wide effective practices for reducing drop out and increasing access to higher education for students traditionally under-represented in higher education (e.g. low income, minority). The intended outcomes are to: (a) develop a drop out prevention program that is feasible for implementation in Texas, (b) evaluate the efficacy of this program, and (c) to disseminate the materials and results as a means to influence public policy, reduce drop out statewide, and increase access to higher education
