Publication Date
Summer 2018
Advisor(s) - Committee Chair
C. Samuel Evans (Director), Gary Houchens, and Robert Lyons
Degree Program
Educational Leadership Doctoral Program
Degree Type
Doctor of Education
Abstract
The purpose of this research was to identify and examine trends in the themes and patterns revealed in the qualitative analysis of the focus group interviews. Data were derived from responses from 21 graduates and six dropouts who answered questions from interview guides. Findings from the analysis indicate both graduates and dropouts experienced similar barriers throughout their academic career. The barriers identified were institutional, situational, and dispositional. Six themes were identified from the three barriers. They included employment, educational/remediation services, attendance, discipline and/or legal issues; educational values, and student-educator relationships. According to the data, these themes were not mutually exclusive to any one barrier. In some of the responses, the themes overlapped into more than one barrier categorization.
Disciplines
Adult and Continuing Education | Disability and Equity in Education
Recommended Citation
Crouch, Donna Kay, "Factors that Influence Students’ Decisions to Either Drop Out or Graduate from High Schools in a Western Kentucky School District" (2018). Dissertations. Paper 151.
https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/diss/151