Girls Tend to Stop Going Boys Get Told Not to Come Back A Report on Gender and the Dropout Problem i

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Girls Tend to Stop Going Boys Get Told Not to
Come BackA Report on Gender and the Dropout
Problem in Colorado Schools

• Laurie J. Bennett, JD, PhD
• National Center for School Engagement
• Martha Abele Mac Iver, PhD
• The Center for Social Organization of Schools
• Johns Hopkins University

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Background

• Dropping out of school, and the concomitant
  failure to graduate with a high school diploma,
  form a silent epidemic in the U.S. today.
• almost one-third of all public high school
  students in America fail to graduate
• (Bridgeland, DiIulio Morison, 2006, p. 1)
• The research consensus dropout rate for girls is
  lower than for boys.
• Nationally 72 of girls graduate, 64 of boys
• Similar in Colorado (Swanson, 2004, pp. 38, 48)

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Background

• Little or no analysis in literature about why
  male and female dropout rates differ, or what
  factors might explain the difference.
• Most research studies on dropouts do not
  disaggregate data by gender
• Result dropout prevention efforts tend to focus
  on boys, and their reasons for dropping out
  ignoring that almost 30 of girls do not graduate

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The Question

• How do we explain why more girls graduate than
  boys?
• Are there factors peculiar to girls that signal
  their dropping out of school and do those
  factors differ from those predicting male
  dropout?
• Identifying what affects girls continued school
  attendance/avoidance is important for crafting
  intervention and dropout efforts to forestall
  their dropping out

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Structure of Study

• Urban/Suburban Quantitative Study
• Data from a quantitative study of the Colorado
  Dropout problem in five urban/suburban districts
  have disaggregated by gender, and the gender
  differences in dropout outcomes and dropout
  predictors are identified.
• Exploratory Qualitative Study
• Interviews with intervention specialists from
  Colorado Youth for a Change who have worked
  intensively with hundreds of dropouts/at risk
  students in urban Colorado schools.

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Description of the Colorado Graduates Five
District Urban/Suburban Study

• Analysis used de-identified student level
  administrative data from five Colorado districts
• Followed 2006-07 secondary students back in time
  4 years
• Identified characteristics distinguishing
  dropouts from graduates and others still in
  school
• Analyzed 2003-04 cohort of 9th graders through
  final outcome in 2006-07

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Summary of Conclusions from Quantitative Study

• Fewer girls than boys dropped out in these large
  Colorado districts.
• This is related to the fact that girls are less
  likely to display the behaviors (particularly
  course failure and misbehavior resulting in
  suspension) closely linked to dropout outcomes.
• At the same time, there continue to be large
  numbers of girls leaving high school without a
  diploma.
• Some of the early warning signs for girls are
  much the same as for boys -- poor attendance,
  misbehavior, and course failure.
• BUT analyses indicated that factors such as
  number of ninth grade failures and suspensions
  explained more of the variation in dropout
  outcomes for boys than for girls.
• Suggests that perhaps life events or other
  factors unrelated to course failures and
  suspensions have more of an impact on dropout
  outcomes for girls than boys.

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Qualitative Study Interviews of Intervention
Specialists

• Quantitative study found that, while some of the
  early warning signals and behaviors useful for
  predicting dropout outcomes for boys work for
  some girls as well, they are not predictive for
  many female dropouts.
• Qualitative study undertaken to explain (a)
  different male/female dropout rates and (b)
  inference that as yet unidentified factors may be
  at work for girls.

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The Interviews

• Unstructured interviews conducted of CYCs
  founder, program director, and three specialists
• Loosely followed protocol asking about
• General reasons for or predictors of dropping out
• Any differences between boys and girls
• Specific pullout or pushout factors influencing
  dropout decisions (REFT Inst., 2009 Stearns
  Glennie, 2006)
• Any differences between boys and girls
• Whether remedial/intervention approach differed
  depending upon gender
• Intervews of 1-1½ hours recorded, coded by
  themes

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Interview Findings Same factors, but manifested
differently for boys vs. girls

• Pullout Factors
• Employment Boys and girls both get pulled away
  from school by draw of outside employment. But
• For boys to man up to support self and
  family, to start a career
• For girls to earn spending money take
  whatever job they dont use the concept of a
  career as a reason not to go back to school.
• Care giving Both boys and girls have family
  obligations pulling them out of school. But
• For girls expected to stay home to care for
  immature or ailing family members, or to cook and
  clean
• For boys expected to be providers for the
  benefit of the family, rather than homebound
  caregivers

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Interview Findings Same factors, but manifested
differently for boys vs. girls

• Pullout Factors
• Pregnancy/parenting Both boys and girls can be
  doing well in school and do a 180, with
  attendance and grades plummeting
• For boys could be any number of things
  involvement with gangs, criminal justice system,
  etc.)
• For girls a clear pattern indicating pregnancy
  teen pregnancy and parenting create host of
  issues requiring personalized support for girl to
  stay in school (health, housing, etc.) Parenting
  responsibilities appear to fall
  disproportionately on new mom
• Other family factors family disruptions such as
  divorce, fighting, financial difficulties,
  illness, abuse/neglect, mobility affect male
  and female students equally, and depress
  attendance
• For boys may impel them to seek outside
  employment to help support family
• For girls may draw them closer into family
  circle to give care in time of need

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Interview Findings Same factors, but manifested
differently for boys vs. girls

• Pullout Factors
• Safety concerns
• For boys do not take personal safety into
  account as a reason to attend or not attend
  school
• For girls may be kept home by family to protect
  her from dangers in school setting parents
  enable girls not to go to school if they feel
  unsafe
• Criminal Justice System Involvement As a rule,
  boys go to corrections, girls do not.
• For boys incarceration for real crimes
  (drugs, stealing cars, gang violence) prevents
  them from getting necessary core credits, cant
  graduate
• For girls types of arrests (petty theft,
  domestic, truancy) more likely to trigger
  involvement with social services or truancy court
  than juvenile justice

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Interview Findings Same factors, but manifested
differently for boys vs. girls

• Pushout Factors
• Academics and credits Both boys and girls are in
  state of blissful ignorance as to status of
  earned credits needed to graduate. Both need
  academic help. But
• For boys do not ask about state of credits and
  get surprised act out in class to point of
  being asked to leave get behind, do not
  understand whats happening in class, get in
  teachers faces about it and get kicked out
• For girls more willing to seek out the
  information about credits and make an initial
  effort to remedy the problem, seek out help (to
  get credits and to catch up academically). If
  efforts do not bear fruit (if the help doesnt
  help) they give up, drift away, stop attending
  class.

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Interview Findings Same factors, but manifested
differently for boys vs. girls

• Pushout factors
• Discipline Boys get suspended/expelled for
  disciplinary reasons more frequently and
  regularly than do girls.
• Boys get kicked out for acting up in class and
  fights, girls for fighting outside of class, not
  for acting up in class, and not that often.
  Boys and girls share the same stories but are
  disciplined differently with boys, there is the
  fear it will get out of hand.
• Attendance Both ditch, but for different
  reasons.
• For boys for work for girls for family
  responsibilities, pregnancy-related issues, peer
  pressure (boys, friends)
• Girls more often get dropped from school for
  nothing more than poor attendance boys get
  pushed out for other behavioral reasons as well

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From The Interviews, Three Themes Emerged

• Three areas kept coming up again and again as
  overarching themes, distinguishing girls from
  boys
• Behavior
• Relationships
• Responsibility for others and for self

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Behavior

• Boys
• Its all about pride, and manning up and
  acting out and getting in your face. They
  are more volatile. They disrupt.
• Their behavior forces the school adults to
  interact with them, for fear that any disruption
  will get out of hand.
• Girls
• They tend to be non-overt. If girls are
  disengaged, if they feel not valued, theyll
  drift off. They rarely assert themselves they
  sneak out, quieter, go unrecognized.
• Girls tend to stop going boys get told not to
  come back.
• Girls drift away from the school setting, and
  since they do not make trouble or assert
  themselves, no one notices. Boys act out their
  frustrations, and are then attended to, but often
  in ill-conceived ways, resulting in their being
  disciplined and ultimately pushed out of school
  altogether.

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Relationships

• For girls, more than boys, their relationships
  appear to be the driving force in whether they go
  to school, stay at home, or go to the mall.
• Girl dramas the intensity of interaction
  among girls that dictate whether school is
  attended or not, the passion of ups and downs of
  boyfriends that can as easily draw a girl away
  from school as to it
• Family girls are pulled toward deep and abiding
  family relationships, full of expectations and
  need and responsibility
• Countervailing pull of school dry academics,
  teachers devoted to curriculum delivery rather
  than relating to students can be pretty weak
• Girls lack a sense of self, and are easily
  swayed. Strong in-school friendships draw girls
  into school. Relationships with adults would,
  if there were adults available to them.
• Girls away from school for a time, due to
  suspensions, family issues, etc., will not come
  back without relationships in the schoo if they
  dont have a relationship to come back to, why
  come back?

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Responsibility for Self and Others

• For girls, one hook that helps reach them is
  their overhanging sense of responsibility
• Their lives are fraught with expectations that
  they care for and support their family members,
  their community, and their peers. They have a
  sobriety about them, theyre more aware of
  responsibilities, realistic about what they need
  to do.
• For boys you have to be sensitive to egos,
  delusions of grandeur they think theyve
  accomplished more than they have.
• For girls have a maturity about them, more
  realisticyou can have more of a professional
  relationship with them. More sober. Boys think
  theyll join the Broncos.
• Girls have difficulty, however, taking
  responsibility for themselves as autonomous
  beings, and get overwhelmed by outside
  responsibilities instead.
• Girls dont have a voice for themselves not
  represented.
• Advocacy for self is a form of caring for self.
  Sometimes the girls dont know how to act like
  they care.
• Girls who come back to school successfully
  acknowledge their autonomy, do it for
  themselves, understand its okay to concentrate
  on self and develop self. Otherwisehopelessly
  pulled back into the web of other peoples
  demands.

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Remedial Action/Intervention Flexibility, Fit
Framing

• Flexibility Dropout programs must meet needs of
  boys and girls for flexibility
• Boys need to be able to participate in school and
  work at the same time
• Girls need to be able to carry out family care
  responsibilities, pregnancy health issues, and
  fit in school at unorthodox times
• Fit Large public schools tend to be like
  factories you dont fit
• Interventions for girls must focus in on the
  inexorable draw that relationships have for them
  while active adult mentors and role-models can be
  a key factor in getting both girls and boys back
  to school, for girls they are, without question,
  crucial.
• Framing How do you persuade a young person that
  getting a diploma is a worthwhile thing to do?
• For boys you need to boost their confidence
  this is how you support your family, through
  education. Give them a realistic picture of
  what education can accomplish for them, and where
  they will be without that diploma.
• For girls appeal to their sense of
  responsibility, tell them what they can and
  should do to develop themselves through education
  so that they can meet the expectations of others
  AND themselves. You can take care of your baby,
  your family better with a diploma this is how
  you take care of them.
• For all of them You have to frame education
  differently for each individual get them to the
  point of saying I see the value in this
  education for me rather than being told it is
  something they should want.

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Implications

• Girls stop going because of
• Care giving responsibilities at home
• The draw of the drama in ones peer group
• Lack of relationships with adults or peers in the
  school setting
• Lack of appreciation for the value of education
  in ones life
• Reluctance or inability to advocate for self in
  or outside of school
• Confluence of these factors makes it exceedingly
  difficult for a girl who gets behind in her work
  ever to catch up ditching school becomes an
  increasing compelling option (or the path of
  least resistance) attend school holds little or
  no attraction
• At home and with peers, she gets positive
  reinforcement, a sense of welcome, a feeling of
  being capable at something at school, she is
  ignored.
• Hence, she drifts away.

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Implications

• Institutional vs. individual perspectives
  (Rumberger, 2004)
• Girls have difficulty advocating for their own
  interests, or even understanding they have
  interests to advance apart from the web of
  families and friendships in which they are
  enmeshed pushing for their own education seems
  selfish in light of institutional pressures.
• Where can a girl find the support and skills to
  allow her to care for herself, so that her path
  to a diploma can be successfully pursued?

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Implications

• Can we create
• pull-in factors schools operating to attract
  and retain girls in school, counteracting the
  forces pushing and pulling them out?
• push-in factors communities, schools, and
  families framing school-going and graduation as
  something of value to young people, and
  persuading them that their communities and
  families are better served by staying in?

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More Work to be Done

• Further large-scale survey work should be done,
  inquiring about the effects of relationships in
  and out of school, complexities of non-school
  responsibilities, impact of life-events
  (pregnancy/parenting) on girls dropping out.
• Before that, need to know more about universe of
  what might be influencing these silent, largely
  passive, drifting away female dropouts
• We recommend (based on Grobe, 2005, Boston
  study)
• Conduct 10 focus groups of girls from differing
  demographics/school circumstances
• Hear their unique voices describing the forces
  pulling them and pushing them out of school
• Learn directly from them what might be effective
  to push or pull them back in

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• Girls are the quietest part of
• The Silent Epidemic let us do what we can to
  provide a platform for their views and positions
  to be represented, and ultimately to incorporate
  their input into intervention proposals that
  might effectively get girls in Colorado to
  graduate.