School Dropout, Disconnected Youth and the Middle Years (2013-2014)

This project team deepened a community/university partnership with Vance County. Located 45 minutes from Duke, this county is struggling with the highest school dropout rate in North Carolina. The partnership is focused on incubating and developing a scalable intervention that will result in measurable improvements in the dropout rate in Vance County. In collaboration with public schools, team members examined the problem of how disconnected youth interact in schools, the development of early warning tracking systems (in elementary and middle schools) and the assessment of new ways of approaching how schools are divided (for example, a school principal suggested adding grades 6-8 to a K-5 school).

Student team members completed an entire iteration cycle of a collaborative educational model with administrators and school personnel at an alternative high school in Vance County. A manuscript based on the collaborative educational model, coauthored by the student team members, was accepted by the Journal of Higher Education Research.

Timing

2013-2014

Team Outcomes

Article accepted for publication in Journal of Higher Education Research

This project team was originally part of the Education & Human Development theme of Bass Connections, which ended in 2022. See related teams, Disconnected Youth and School Dropout Prevention (2016-2017) and Disconnected Youth and School Dropout Prevention (2014-2015).