At-Risk Intervention: Student Perceptions of a Calfironia Partnership Academy
Graduation Date
Spring 1998
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Document Form
Degree Name
Master of Science
Program Name
Education
Abstract
This study examines the effectiveness of a specific program of at-risk intervention: the California Partnership Academies Grant. While this grant maintains many parameters for the successful implementation of its program, the author of this paper contends that it is the sense of community created by the structure of the program that is its most successful component. Grade point averages, attendance records, and student surveys were used to support this small, qualitative study of six students participating in the Alta High School Business and Financial Services Academy in a rural county of Northern California. The data were analyzed to identify common themes throughout the interviews, which form the major basis of the hypothesis. The students interviewed consistently cited a sense of community, closer relationships with their teachers, excellence of the teaching staff, and outside activities as the best components of the Academy program. This study suggests that these components can be increased in any student's educational experience, thereby fulfilling the promise of worthwhile, excellent schooling for all.