Date of Conferral

2019

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Health Services

Advisor

Magdeline C. Aagard

Abstract

The research problem focused on the use of collaboration by managers, supervisors, consultants, and professional staff in a department of public education and health to address disparities in on-time high school completion rates. The purpose of the study was to examine the perspectives of individuals in these public sectors on the use of collaboration as a means to improve on-time high school completion rates for African American and Hispanic students. The theoretical foundation and conceptual framework for the study were John Rawls's theory of justice and Amartya Sen's capability approach. The key research question involved how individuals in the public education and health sectors viewed the use of collaboration to address a complex problem of low rate of on-time high school completion for African American and Hispanic students. The research design was a multiple case study. Seven individuals participated from a department of public education and 4 from a department of public health in the same state. Data were collected and analyzed from participant interviews. Themes were identified from categories and specific codes or words that described the content of the participants' responses. A major conclusion was collaboration between a public education department and public health department can be used as a means to improve on-time high school completion rates for African American and Hispanic students. The implications for social change may be to increase the awareness for a public education department and public health department to routinely work in collaboration to improve on-time high school completion rates of minority and other vulnerable students.

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