Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2023
Abstract
Goal Statement: Enable more students to cross the achievement gap between high school and
college.
Significant Findings: The development of this portfolio emphasized issue of teens from 16 to 19 years of age that are not enrolled in school. Pasco County touts a 91% graduation rate for high school seniors during the 2020-2021 school year. Although this percentage represents a vast majority of teens graduating, it undermines not the percentage, but the actual numbers of teens who do not. When crunching the numbers there are over 2,000 teens not enrolled in high school and not employed. The state, nor the Pasco County school system provides specific demographic information surrounding these youth to discern causality. However, a similar study in Seattle, WA, Hooven, Pike, and Walsh’s (2013) findings may equate to similar circumstances in Pasco County. In the Seattle study, it was discovered these teens typically fall under a minority or marginalized group, however, a sub-group emerged. The parents of the teens played a large part in their teen’s sustained enrollment. Behind this, it was learned the majority of the parents held an authoritarian parenting style. With this finding, it was recommended to design a prevention program(s) that included the parents as key participants. It was witnessed the more the parent and teen were at odds, the more likely the parent dropped out of the program with their teen discontinuing as well. When the parent/teen were able to work in concert together, there was a significant increase in sustained participation in the program and school attendance.
