Abstract:

An increasing challenge in formal educational settings today is school failure, as may be tracked through two of its most evident indicators: low achievement and student dropout. Two research studies are reported here, aimed at the explanation of high achievement and very low dropout rates in 4 schools (private and state-managed) placed at social contexts of extreme poverty and marginalization, in Uruguay. In such contexts, schools usually attain very low achievement rates and high levels of student dropout.

The studies focused on the main pedagogical traits of the schools, the way they monitored students’ learning processes, the way they dealt with the families and the community, and the main educational principles and values they pursued. The studies were performed as case studies, with intensive on-site field work, including more than 60 interviews (to principals, teachers, support staff, students, and their families), observation (of schools’ facilities, staff meetings and support and tutorial classes), and document analysis of each school’s formative project, teachers’ registrations of class work, and institutional documents. More than 130 hours of field work were completed.

Main results reveal at least 4 sets of strategies present at all schools. First, a strong leadership that makes focus on learning issues, and works closely and with strong commitment to the work teachers do. Second, this leadership is based on an articulate formative project inspired on common principles such as: high demands posed to every student “no matter what”; clear rules that are respected; and the construction of a tight bond between the school and each family. Third, a number of follow-up strategies of the learning process of the students are performed. They start with preventive strategies, put into action with the purpose of early detection of learning or emotional liabilities, especially of first graders. This preventive policy leads to several intervention strategies that include the strengthening of self-esteem, the integration of families to the life of the school, and many cognitive-aimed strategies, that range from tutorial and support classes to individual counseling by carefully selected teachers. In addition, the standard school calendar is modified in order to offer more formative spaces for students who need them: summer and winter holidays are shortened and tutorials and support spaces are offered. Fourth, a close, optimistic and friendly school climate is conscious and deliberately built, one that fosters affectionate relationships between the adults that work at the schools and each and every student.

Keywords:

Inclusive education, students at risk, dropout prevention, secondary education.