Questionnaire for Teachers and School Administrators - Report Example

Personal Information When asking for these types personal information, it’s best if you also add follow up questions when necessary. Gender: Age: Birth Date: (This serves as a form of data triangulation to test the reliability of the information presented in the age section.) Ethnicity: Native Language: Number of Siblings: Parental Employment: (Both Mother and Father) Family Income: Type of Disability: Level of Disability: School Record Grades. Please take note of failing marks in what subjects and if the student has been retained by a year. Absenteeism. Behavior: Please pay attention to disruptive and emotionally unstable behavior. This is an intensive interview so there’s no need to give choices. Let them answer on their own and then we’ll just code and analyze the data into categories later on. First, introduce yourself and explain what the study is all about. It’s also good to start small talk first before starting to ask the questions so you can develop some sort of trust or friendship with the interviewee. School Climate (Follow up questions are needed depending on the answers. Please make sure you get a real feel of his/her experience of the school climate) 1. Please describe your general experience in school. Are you happy to be in that school? Why/why not? 2. Do you feel that your teachers paid attention to your needs? How so? 3. Do you feel that the school was able to provide you with a good education? 4. Do you feel that the school has all the tools and facilities you need? What were lacking/what was great about the facilities? Sense of Belonging (Follow up questions are needed depending on the answers.) 1. Are you a member of clubs? What types of clubs? What other extracurricular activities are you involved in? 2. Do you enjoy these activities? Why/why not? 3. Can you say that you have a lot of friends? Why/why not? 4. Do you feel that you belong in the school? Why/why not? 5. When you wake up in the morning to get ready for school, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Why do you think that is? Attitude towards School (Follow up questions are needed depending on the answers.) 1. What is your dream? What’s your goal in life? 2. Do you think it’s important to go to school to achieve this dream? Why/why not? 3. Can you say you’re a good student? Why/why not? 4. Do you think you got the grades that you deserve? Why/why not? Educational support in the home & Stressful Life Events (Follow up questions are needed depending on the answers.) 1. What aspects of your personal life do you think negatively affected your studies? Positively? 2. Can you say that your family values education? Your education? (sometimes parents tend to be biased, valuing the education of one son/daughter while ignoring the other) 3. Was the decision to drop out your decision or your parents? 4. Did anything happen that contributed to your decision to quit school? 5. What are the top 3 reasons that you can say contributed to your dropping out of high school? Why? 6. What consequences do you think dropping out has? Do you think you’ll still get a good job? 7. Do you still want to study and graduate? How about college? Questionnaire for Teachers and School Administrators Please interview the principal, is possible, and at least 6 teachers. If possible, it’s important to interview the teachers who taught/handled the special education dropouts that you’re interviewing. This is also a part of validating the data these students are giving out. Personal Information (Please insert any personal information that you think is relevant that I might have overlooked) Name: Age: (Age sometimes factors into people’s perceptions regarding school policies and environment. Older ones tend to be more traditional. Although this isn’t always the case, it’s just best to get this info for a more complete set of data.) Position: Years in that Position: University/College Degree: (To know if the subject’s opinions on student engagement can be quoted, like if he/she has a background in psychology, etc.) Relevant professional history: (Like was the principal a teacher first, for how long before he/she became a principal. How long has he/she been working with special education students?) History of Complaints: (If there are any, what is the nature of the complaints?) * If possible, please ask the teachers about the special education dropouts you have interviewed. If they taught them, if they still remember them, what are their thoughts as to why these students dropped out? Were they expecting them to drop out? Did they try to dissuade the students from dropping out? Student Records/Performance: 1. Based on your access to student records and from your experience, what are the rates of absenteeism of special education students? 2. How does this affect their performance and engagement in school? 3. What are the statistics (or the subject’s observations) regarding the students’ grades and what affects their ability to get good grades? 4. Please relate your observations and experiences regarding how special education students tend to behave. (In a predictive manner that is based on their knowledge and experience in teaching) 5. How does a student’s behavior affect their performance/engagement in school? School Climate: 1. Do you think you are able to provide a school environment that is conducive to encouraging special education students to stay in school? (Please remind the subject that they must be objective.) How so? Please cite examples. 2. Please describe in detail the areas where you think show that you provide a good school environment for special education students. How about the areas where the school is lacking? (Please ask the subject to talk about facilities like ramps for wheelchairs, qualifications of teachers to handle and teach special education students, etc.) 3. Do you think your curriculum caters to special education students? How so? Sense of Belonging: 1. Have you studied or are you familiar with Finn’s Participation-Identification Model of School Engagement? If yes, can you give a brief explanation? 2. How do you think this is applicable to your school setting? 3. Do you notice that special education students are being ostracized? If so, in what manner? How do you think this affects their performance and engagement in school? 4. Do you think the students who dropped out lacked a sense of belonging? Reasons for Dropping Out: 1. What do you think are the top 3 to 5 reasons why students drop out of your high school? Please rank them accordingly. Why do you say so? (This should include a detailed explanation of why reason is ranked number 1, and so on. This is based on the subject’s experience and observations.) 2. Please show the subject the list of status and alterable variables (in the next pages) and ask them to rank it according to what they think applies to the school. Were the reasons they mentioned beforehand there? (This is optional. If you’re going to do this, you need to do it after asking question 1 so that their views won’t be biased and they won’t box their observations based on the list.) 3. What dropout prevention strategies are you currently applying, if any? If there’s none, what do you think is the most applicable to the school? 4. Do you think the school is exerting all of its effort in making special education students stay in school? Please illustrate why or why not. *For the last question, please ask the subject regarding his/her views on your dissertation. Do they think it will help? Does knowing the top reasons why special education students drop out of high school (for every school as what the study’s ultimate aim is) help? Will its impacts be felt or is there really no hope? *Again, please insert follow up questions whenever necessary. It’s important that we maximize their knowledge on the topic. Also, please don’t forget to transcribe it properly so that we can quote them in the thesis. Thanks. IMPORTANT NOTES: Two of the main concerns of your professor are the validation and triangulation of data. Validity: Data is only useful if it actually measures what it claims to be measuring and, in this respect, the concept of validity refers to the extent to which the data we collect gives a true measurement / description of "social reality" (what is "really happening" in society). Triangulation: For example, when we interview people a general weakness here is that we have to take it on trust that the respondent is telling us the truth. In this instance, we might use an observational method to try and check we are getting the truth about someones behaviour. By observing them in their everyday life, for example, we might be able to check they actually do what they tell us they do... You can only ensure that the data you have gathered is valid if you also interview special education professors, principals, other students, etc. who can give you a more detailed description of the special education and environment being provided by the school. This is also to get an unbiased set of data—you both get data from the administration, as well as from the students. Another important thing that you must do is to find the teachers of these dropout students to show if what they’re saying is true and you can always cross check with their school records. For example, if a dropout you interviewed said that she’s failing anyway so she dropped out, but her grades say otherwise, then we can’t use the data because it’s invalid. You can also cross check against your observations. Because they’ve already dropped out and you can’t observe them in school anymore, it’s best to interview the teachers. Please don’t forget to get a psychologist/psychiatrist present during the interviewers. He or she will act as the third party observer, as well as an expert who can validate the interview. Your prof stated that you need to validate the questionnaire, can you please consult him how to do this? Is it ok if you have the psychologist validate it? Here’s a list of the Status and Alterable Variables that will be used for Data Coding and Analysis. Just so you know the important data that we need to focus on. Overview of Status Variables Associated with Dropout (Macmillan, 1991; Rosenthal, 1998; Rumberger, 1995; Wolman, Bruininks, & Thurlow, 1989). These statements apply to groups of students on average. • Age. Students who drop out tend to be older compared to their grade-level peers. • Gender. Students who drop out are more likely to be male. Females who drop out often do so due to reasons associated with pregnancy. • Socioeconomic background. Dropouts are more likely to come from low-income families. • Ethnicity. The rate of dropout is higher on average for Black, Hispanic, and Native American youth. • Native language. Students who come from non-English speaking backgrounds are more likely to have higher rates of dropout. • Region. Students are more likely to drop out if they live in urban settings as compared to suburban or nonmetropolitan areas. Dropout rates are higher in the South and West than in the Northeast region of the U.S. • Mobility. High levels of household mobility contribute to increased likelihood of dropping out. • Ability. Lower scores on measures of cognitive ability are associated with higher rates of dropout. • Disability. Students with disabilities (especially those with emotional/behavioral disabilities) are at greater risk of dropout. • Parental employment. Dropouts are more likely to come from families in which the parents are unemployed. • School size and type. School factors that have been linked to dropout include school type and large school size. • Family structure. Students who come from single-parent families are at greater risk of dropout. Overview of Alterable Variables Associated with Dropout (Macmillan, 1991; Rosenthal, 1998; Rumberger, 1995; Wolman et al., 1989). These statements apply to groups of students on average. • Grades. Students with poor grades are at greater risk of dropout. • Disruptive behavior. Students who drop out are more likely to have exhibited behavioral and disciplinary problems in school. • Absenteeism. Rate of attendance is a strong predictor of dropout. • School policies. Alterable school policies associated with dropout include raising academic standards without providing supports, tracking, and frequent use of suspension. School climate. Positive school climate is associated with lower rates of dropout. • Parenting. Homes characterized by permissive parenting styles have been linked with higher rates of dropout. • Sense of belonging. Alienation and decreased levels of participation in school have been associated with increased likelihood of dropout. • Attitudes toward school. The beliefs and attitudes (e.g., locus of control, motivation to achieve) that students hold toward school are important predictors of dropout. • Educational support in the home. Students whose families provide higher levels of educational support for learning are less likely to drop out. • Retention. Students who drop out are more likely to have been retained than students who graduate. Using National Education Longitudinal Study data, being held back was identified as the single biggest predictor of dropping out. • Stressful life events. Increased levels of stress and the presence of stressors (e.g., financial difficulty, health problems, early parenthood) are associated with increased rates of dropout. Read More