Date of Award

2012

Publication Type

Master Thesis

Degree Name

M.A.Sc.

Department

Education

Keywords

Education.

Supervisor

Salinitri, Geri (Education)

Rights

info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether or not a school-based program designed to increase academic success and resiliency in at-risk grade 10 students met its objectives. The study sought to assess the null hypothesis that there is no relationship between academic performance, as identified by student engagement, and the intervention, and that there is no relationship between resiliency and the intervention. The study investigated two research questions. Does the intervention, the Discovering Your Possibilities (DYP) program increase students' academic success, as identified by student engagement: increase in attendance, decrease in lates, improved credit accumulation and increase in grade point average (GPA), and does it increase the level of resiliency of at-risk youth? What elements in the program contributed to resiliency (if any) from the perceptions of the students, and from the perceptions of the Student Success Teachers (SSTs)? An explanatory mixed methods design was used in this study as both quantitative data was collected and analyzed and qualitative data, audio interviews of students and teachers, was gathered in order to explain and expand the quantitative results. The results of this study indicate that the intervention had a positive effect on academic success for those students who participated more fully in the intervention. While the quantitative data results indicate that there is no relationship between resiliency and the intervention, the qualitative data indicates that the intervention positively affected resiliency.

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