ABSTRACT

STUDY TO ASSIST SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS'

UNDERSTANDING OF SUCCESSFUL AND NONSUCCESSFUL

MEXICAN AMERICAN HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

Jaime Arturo Rivera

"Why do some Mexican American students successfully complete a secondary academic program and some do not?" This was the paramount question guiding this study. The influence of family, interpersonal, school, and peer factors on 12 tenth-grade students were studied to find why six of these students were at risk of failing to complete their academic studies in an urban high school.

Interviews included questionnaires and open-ended written responses with 6 parents (3 high risk and 3 low risk), 12 students (6 high risk and 6 low risk), and 13 administrators. Narrative summaries with corresponding tables and figures were formed using a cross-case analysis of the open-ended written responses, individual and group case studies, summaries of group responses, and data from school district documents.

Eleven administrators were from stable Anglo families with high parental involvement in education, Six of these administrators saw socioeconomics and five administrators saw the parental role or attitudes as major factors to students becoming at risk. They viewed ethnicity as a minor factor contributing to the at-risk status of their Mexican American students.

Five distinct characteristics of high-risk parents were found: (a) all high-risk parents reported the family factor as the third most important factor in their children's lives; whereas, 100% of the low-risk students and the low-risk parents and 67% of the high-risk students reported the family factor as the first and second most important factor; (b) communication between school personnel and high-risk parents was minimal and negative; (c) high-risk parents had not completed college; (d) there were major differences in responses between high-risk parents and high-risk students to the same questions; and (e) the expectations of the high-risk parents did not match their preferences for their children.

Responses across all factors from both high and low-risk students indicated apparent similarities; however, shades of differences, almost undetectable, differentiated the high-risk student from the low-risk student. These shades of differences were seen in their likes and dislikes, preferences, goals, reasons for being in school, and their relationships with peers.

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Overview

From an enrollment of 15.0 million grade 10 through grade 12 students, the Census Bureau Update reported that the dropout rate in 1995 rate was 5.4%. The large number of students leaving high school before graduation is regarded as a major national problem. For the individual, the costs as a result of failing to complete school consist of limited economic and occupational opportunities, loss of substantial personal income over a lifetime, and disenfranchisement from society and its institutions (Steinberg, Blinde, & Chan, 1984). For society, the costs of failure to educate ethnic minorities as contributing citizens are also great.

Mexican Americans are the fastest growing ethnic group in the United States and in many city school districts. Mexican American children represent a significant proportion of the elementary school population in major urban school districts in the Southwest (Sandoval, 1994). For example, Mexican American students represent 32.97% of the high school population in Yavapai, Arizona and 5.14% of the entire school district's dropout rate (Yavapai Union High School District #70, 1997). Historically, Mexican American children, even when born in the United States, score below Caucasian and Asian-American children on standardized tests, drop out of high school at higher rates than do Caucasian children, and do not perform at the level of academic achievement that other immigrant groups attain to (Keith, 1992). Although Mexican American children in the United States are entering the educational system in ever-increasing numbers, only a small percentage graduate from high school (Rumberger, 1993).

Parents, educators, and researchers are challenged to identify the factors that contribute to variation in academic achievement among Mexican American students in the Southwest. School opportunities have not been readily available or have been negated for most lower-class Mexican American high school students who have aspired to middle and upper-class norms and success. They have become frustrated by their inability to succeed or be accepted in the academic setting, ceased trying to succeed academically, performed poorly in school, and eventually left school prematurely.

Although there are many reasons why students leave school without a high school diploma, the risk factors consistently linked to dropping out of school include aspects of the family background, in particular, low socioeconomic status. Studies reveal that a combination of several factors commonly associated with dropping out of high school include race/ethnicity, living in a poor household or single-parent family, low parental education or income, limited English proficiency, peer pressure, disciplinary history, academic failure, having a brother or sister who dropped out of high school, and being at home alone without adult supervision. These factors put many Hispanic students at high risk of dropping out of school. Hispanic students have the highest incidence of a single risk factor of all major groups and are almost three times as likely as Anglo students to have two or more risk factors.

Although a relatively large percentage of Mexican American students drop out before completing high school, there does exist a substantial number of Mexican American students who perform well in school (U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Educational Statistics [NCES], 1992a). The existence of students who do well stimulates an inquiry as to why certain Mexican American students succeed academically while a significantly large percentage do not. The question is "Why do students who have faced the same obstacles succeed?"

Purpose of Study

A preliminary search of current literature revealed that there were little, if any, data on the academic achievement of successful Mexican American students and the application of the data to assist high-risk students to succeed. Instead, the majority of the studies and articles focused on at-risk programs, preventative measures for Hispanics in general, gang prevention, and educational recommendations for success. The studies were not relevant to this study since most of the data were derived from successful, affluent Anglo students who were not representative of the population in most urban high schools.

To date, the research on the prediction and correlates of school achievement has been relatively theoretical. Synthesis of results has been problematic because the studies have varied along several methodological dimensions. Nevertheless, certain patterns have emerged. Early work on the prediction of the academic achievement of children did not focus on Hispanics, per se, but the studies did underscore the relationship between dropout rates and the combination of four distinct factors: family background, early academic/disciplinary history, students' self-perception, and peer pressure (Ekstrom, Goertz, Pollack, & Rock, 1986).

The effects that each of the four variables have on each other, how they individually or in combination affect academic achievement of Mexican American tenth-grade students, or how each of these variables are perceived by the "high risk" and "low risk" students, their parents, and the targeted school's administration does not exist in current literature. Therefore, this study not only interrelated these four sets of variables to determine what degree they influenced academic success of tenth-grade students but also determined to what degree these same variables influenced school failure. The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of parents, students, and administrators as to four factors (family, interpersonal, school, and peers) that influenced tenth-grade Mexican American students to succeed or fail in completing an academic program. Two desired end results of this study were to be able to predict at-risk students and to provide data that would inform school administrators as to how best assist high-risk students.

Statement of the Problem

The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of parents, students, and administrators as to four factors (family, interpersonal, school, and peers) that influenced tenth-grade Mexican American students to succeed or fail in completing an academic program. Two desired end results of this study were to be able to predict at-risk students and to provide data that would inform school administrators as to how best assist high-risk students.

In the current literature there is little, if any, data on the academic achievement of successful Mexican American students and the utilization of those data to assist high-risk students to succeed. Four variables (Gonzalez, 1994) were identified in the literature that influence students' success or failure in high school: (a) familial factors (e.g., parental behavior as perceived by their children); (b) student interpersonal factors (i.e., educational and occupational aspirations); (c) school factors (i.e., academic achievement and disciplinary history); and (d) peer pressure (e.g., peer behavior as perceived by students).

Literature focuses more on Hispanics in general, Hispanic at-risk students, or Hispanic students at the elementary level rather than the high school level. Many of these students experienced academic success while others experienced academic failure. This study addressed the weaknesses of previous studies and adds to the limited literature on specific factors influencing not only the Mexican American high school student who fails, but also the Mexican American high school student who succeeds! This study was designed to assist school administrators to understand the differences between "high risk" and "low risk" students and to assist them to better provide for those students who are at-risk of dropping out of school prematurely.

At first glance, a study based on the perceptions of 6 "high risk" and 6 "low risk" students, 6 parents, and 13 school administrators from a single school district may be viewed as unimportant in the larger view of education. Nonetheless, it is widely acknowledged that solutions to the dropout problem must come from individual school districts and individual students. By focusing on a typical urban school district and individual students, the researcher explored the nature of the problem and its possible solutions. The following research questions were formulated around four factors (interpersonal, family, school, and peers) to determine why some tenth-grade Mexican American students succeed and why some fail in completing an academic program:

1 What is the impact of the familial factors on the tenth-grade Mexican American students and their academic success or failure from a high-risk and low-risk student, parent, and administrator perspective?

2. What is the impact of the students' interpersonal factors on the tenth-grade Mexican American students and their

academic success or failure from a high-risk and low-risk student, parent, and administrator perspective?

3. What is the impact of the school factors on the tenth-grade Mexican American students and their academic success

or failure from a high-risk and low-risk student, parent, and administrator perspective?

4. What is the impact of the peer pressure factors on the tenth-grade Mexican American students and their academic success or failure from a high-risk and low-risk student, parent, and administrator perspective?

Definition of Terms

A research study should define the terms that are unique or specific to that study (Gay, 1993). For the purpose of this study, pertinent terms are defined in the following paragraphs:

Academic achievement level. Academic achievement level distinguishes between two categories of students: academically successful and academically non-successful students. Academically successful students are those with cumulative grade point averages greater than or equal to 2.0 (on a 4.0 scale) plus Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS) scores greater than or equal to the 50th percentile rank. Academically nonsuccessful students are those with cumulative grade point averages less than or equal to 2.0 (on a 4.0 scale) plus Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS) scores less than or equal to the 49th percentile rank (Gonzalez, 1994).

Academic self-esteem: Academic self-esteem is the aspect of selfesteem that refers to individuals' perceptions of their ability to succeed academically (Battle, 1992).

Academic success: In this study, academic success is defined as a cumulative grade point average (GPA) of 2.0 or greater.

Alienation: In this study, alienation is the relationship an individual has with his/her work, social setting, or self. It could be represented as a sense of impotence, isolation, refusal to accept prevailing norms, or a lack of meaning in daily activities (Calabrese & Seldin, 1987).

At-risk students: The YUHSD defined at-risk as those students in danger of dropping out of school without receiving a high school diploma or its equivalence. At-risk and high-risk are utilized interchangeably in this study. The following criteria were used to define a high school student who was at-risk:

• High absence at their respective high school

• Single parent household

• Low socioeconomic background (SES)

• Discipline problems

• Failure of course(s)

• Teen pregnancy/parent

• Employed many hours outside of school

• Low scores on standardized achievement tests

• Those whose first and/or dominant language is one other than English, although they may be academically gifted (NCES, 1997).

The Thesaurus of ERIC Descriptors (1990) defines at-risk as "students with normal intelligence, whose academic background or prior performance may cause them to be perceived as candidates for future academic failure or withdrawal" (p. 3).

Attitude: Attitude is, generally speaking, a position of the body or manner of carrying oneself, indicative of the mood or condition; a state of mind or feeling with regard to a person or thing (American Heritage Dictionary, 1993).

Causal-comparative: Causal-comparative is descriptive of a type of ex post facto research that attempts to determine if a difference exists between groups; and so, to identify the major cause for the difference (Gay, 1993).

Culture: Cultures includes classification of minority groups based on their relationship to the dominant culture: caste, immigrant, and autonomous (Ogbu, 1987).

Dropout prevention/intervention: Dropout prevention/intervention involves strategies and programs used to identify and assist students who are at risk of leaving school prematurely.

Dropouts: Dropouts may be defined differently for different purposes. The particular definition that is chosen matters particularly both to estimation of dropout rates, and to causal modeling of dropout phenomena. NCES (1997) study defined a dropout as a student who, according to the particular school, was not attending school; that is, the student has not been in school for four consecutive weeks or more and is not absent due to accident or illness.

Educational aspirations and expectations: Educational aspirations can be measured by asking students how many years of school they aspire to complete after high school and how many years of school they expect to complete after high school (Gonzalez, 1994).

Effectiveness: The number of students showing gains in attendance, grade point average, and school attitude (assuming the attitude is poor on pretest). The term effectiveness is used interchangeably with success rate throughout the study.

Gang: A gang consists of two or more people who (a) form an allegiance for a common purpose; (b) identify with or claim a territory in the community or school; and (c) engage, individually or collectively, in violence and other criminal activity (Hernandez, 1996).

General self-esteem: General self-esteem is the aspect of self-esteem that refers to individuals' overall perceptions of their worth (Battle, 1992).

Grade point average (GPA): Averages are calculated by totaling the grades by point value and dividing by the number of courses. This study included all courses taken by the sample groups in the time frame designated.

The point range was 0.0 to 4.0.

Hispanic: Hispanics are an aggregation of several distinct national origin subgroups, which include people from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Central and South America, and other Latin countries (NCES, 1992).

Immigrants: For the purpose of this study, immigrants are Mexican students who have been in the United States for less than three years.

Language English Proficient (LEP): LEP refers to language minority students who have difficulty understanding, speaking, reading, or writing the English language at levels appropriate to their age and grade in school (Lapp & Flood, 1994, p. 261).

Leaver. A leaver is a student who participates in and has left any grade (nine through twelve), who has the ability to meet graduation requirements or pass the GRE. A leaver is not known to have transferred to any other high school.

Mexican American: This term is used to refer to (a) Mexican individuals who are self-declared second or third generation Mexicans and are living in the United States; (b) Mexican Americans born in the United States; and (c) Mexican Immigrants who have either permanent residents or naturalized citizens. For the purpose of this study, Mexican American refers to all individuals of Mexican heritage.

Mexican: For the purpose of this study, Mexican refers to individuals who were born in Mexico and self-declare themselves as Mexican (Gonzales, 1994).

Motivation: Motivation is made of "all those inner striving conditions described as wishes, desires, etc.... It is an inner state that activates or moves individuals" (Owen, 1991, p. 102). Without motivation there would be no purpose, organized behavior by individual--either at work or elsewhere. Motivation is generally considered to be rooted in human needs (Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs); the individual responds to needs by doing something about them (Owen, 1991).

Multimethodological: Multimethodology refers to the use of several research methods that provide convergence from multiple perspectives that ensure non-overlapping weaknesses in addition to complementary strengths (Gay, 1993).

Occupational aspirations: Occupational aspirations are identified by asking students to indicate specific occupations that they would like to enter

after they are out of high school and to indicate occupations that they would like to be in when they turn 25 years of age (Gonzalez, 1994).

Parent-related self-esteem: Parent-related self-esteem is the aspect of self-esteem that refers to students' perceptions of their status at home, including their subjective perceptions of how their parents or parent-surrogates view them (Battle, 1992).

Parenting perceptions: Parenting perceptions refer to children's perception of their parents' child-rearing behavior.

Perception: Broadly considered, perception is the ability to perceive; insight or understanding; marked by discernment (American Heritage Dictionary, 1983).

Post-secondary education: Post-secondary education is formal education after kindergarten through 12th grade, usually a technical school, community college, and/or university (Sandoval, 1994).

Social mobility. Social mobility includes the shaping values, aspiration, and achievement patterns among students of Hispanic descent.

Social self-esteem: Social self-esteem is the aspect of self-esteem that refers to individuals' perceptions of the quality of their relationships with peers (Battle, 1992).

Student attrition: Student attrition refers to a decrease in the number of students who were enrolled in school and for some reason left the school before the completion of the school year.

Student interpersonal factor. The terms interpersonal, attitudinal, and self-perception are utilized interchangeably in this study.

Student persistence: Student persistence is descriptive of a student who is tenacious and refuses to quit school in spite of many problems.

Transition: Transition is an instance or process of changing from one form, state, subject, or place to another. Examples could include transition from adolescence to adulthood or from high school to college (Sandoval, 1994).

Triangulation: Triangulation is the confirmation of a proposition by two or more independent measurement processes (Isaac & Michael, 1990). This study utilized a stage one student questionnaire and interview, stage two parent questionnaire and interview, followed by stage three school administration questionnaire in data collection.

White/Anglo: White or Anglo refers a person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, North America, or the Middle East, except those of Hispanic origin (Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964). For the purpose of this study, White and Anglo were utilized interchangeably.

Abbreviations Used

ESL: EngIish-as-a-Second-Language

GPA: Grade point average

ITBS: Iowa Test for Basic Skills

LEP: Limited English Proficient

NCES: National Center for Educational Statistics

SES: Socioeconomic Status

YUHSD: Yavapai Union High School District #70

Limitations

According to Gay (1993), "A limitation is some aspect of a study that the researcher knows may negatively affect the result, or generalizability of the results, but over which he/she probably has no control" (p. 108). Although the research design for gathering information was carefully thought out, the following elements were beyond the researcher's control: (a) the truthfulness of the responses to self-rating on the questionnaire/survey by the students, parents, and school administrators; (b) important information that participants chose to discuss or withhold from the researcher during personal and telephone interviews; and (c) the subjectivity involved in selecting the school district and the targeted schools. These and other elements influenced the analysis and interpretation of data. Being aware of these issues, the researcher sought to lessen the influence of factors that could contaminate the findings in this study.

The following specific limitations were identified for this study:

Instrument limitations: Questionnaires/Surveys as research tools are always subject to certain biases. One of them is that questionnaire/survey data provide the subject with a predetermined choice of responses; therefore, such information does not reflect the richness that open-ended questions or interviews would offer. On the other hand, by providing a constant structure, questionnaires allow more systematic comparisons and wider generalization. Another limitation is that reported behavior may not provide as accurate a description of behavior as direct observations. The problem with observing behavior in terms of time is the amount of data that would be required to make inferences about the variables in this study (Gay, 1992).

GPA assumption: The assumption is made that the GPA is an accurate reflection of academic success or lack thereof.

Hawthorn Effect. The Hawthorn Effect as stated by Isaac and Michael (1990) is the effect of singling out a subgroup to participate in a research project that makes the subjects feel and act differently. "Awareness that one is a participant in an experiment" (p. 86) is one factor of the 9 733) + Effect. Because the investigator was a former Coronado High School teacher (a school in this study), a detention advisor, and a Northern Arizona University representative, the subjects in this study could have offered responses they felt the investigator wanted to hear that were not necessarily a true depiction of their feelings, perceptions, or attitudes.

Interview measurement limitations: The major disadvantage of the interview method is that the direct interaction between researcher and interviewee makes it easy for subjectivity and bias to occur. The eagerness of the interviewee to please the interviewer, a vague antagonism that sometimes arises between interviewer and interviewee, and the tendency of the interviewer to seek out answers that support his/her preconceived notions are a few factors that could contribute to biasing of interview data. In addition, the interview process is time-consuming and costly (Borg & Gall, 1993).

Sample limitations: Those tenth-grade students who returned their permission slips to participate in this study were likely to be different from those students who chose not to participate. Additionally, the results of this study were limited to interpretations about lower socioeconomic Mexican American children, aged 13 to 15, living in a mid-sized Southwestern community.

• Since the interviewer had worked with some of the students from all three schools, interviewer bias could have influenced the subjects to respond in ways they thought the researcher might have desired, rather than answering with statements of their actual perceptions and attitudes. The researcher was employed by Coronado High School as a social studies teacher from 1994 to 1998.

• Students and parents had a choice to be interviewed in English or in Spanish. The researcher was proficient in the Spanish language, having been reared in a Spanish-speaking-only environment.

• Participants of the study might have felt uneasy because of peer pressure from other high-risk students. Non-participants of the study might have influenced the participants by expressing their opinion that information related to either gang affiliation or gang membership might be shared with the police.

• If parents did not understand the purpose of the study, they might have influenced the subjects to respond inaccurately. Mexican parents are sometimes unaware of their role in the American educational process due, in part, to distrust of authority.

• This study used a multi-method design as a way to mitigate threats to validity and thereby increase the credibility of the finding:

By gathering and interpreting data from more than a single source, i.e., both focus groups and individual interviews, cross-checking was done to see if those different interview eventually "converge" or lead down the same path with regard to the findings and results. (Dereshiwsky, 1997, p. 12)

The delimitations of this study were as follows:

• Coronado High School identified and provided two Mexican American students who had experienced academic success, two Mexican American students who were at high-risk of leaving school, two parents, and four school administrators.

• Kaibab High School identified and provided two Mexican American students who had experienced academic success, two Mexican American students who were at high-risk of leaving school, two parents, and five school administrators.

• Yavapai High School identified and provided two Mexican American students who had experienced academic success, two Mexican American students who were at high-risk of leaving school, two parents, and four school administrators.

Generalization to other populations: The study was limited to Mexican-American students, Mexican American parents, and school administrators within the Yavapai Union High School.

• The results of this study should not be construed to imply that these similarities are applicable to other Mexican American parents, other Mexican American students or Hispanics in general who are enrolled elsewhere, and other school administrators. Staffing may differ from those who participated in this study. The similarities also should not be construed as applicable to the goals of other school programs, nor as applicable to the commitment towards high-risk problems as demonstrated by administrators in this study.

• Some translation of participant responses, at times, might not appear grammatically correct. The interviewer attempted to report the responses in an verbatim format, thus reflecting the true language level of each interviewee.

Sample size: This study was limited to 6 high-risk and 6 low-risk Mexican American high school students in the tenth grade, 6 parents, and 12 school administrators within the Yavapai Union High School District #70.

Time delimiter: This study was conducted during the 1998 fall semester at Yavapai Union High School #70 and should not be generalized to any other time period since "conditions today may be quite different from what they were yesterday and what they might be tomorrow even for the same place and with the same exact subjects" (Dereshiwsky, 1998, p. 17).

Multiple-treatment interference: Multiple-treatment interference occurs when the same subjects receive two or more treatments (i.e., questionnaire and interview). There may be a carry-over effect between treatments, such that the results might not necessarily be generalizable to a single treatment.

Assumptions

The researcher made the following assumptions while conducting this study:

1. The survey and questionnaire instruments (Appendices A, B, and C) were valid and reliable. The instruments were an adaptation of student and parent questionnaires, surveys, and interviews designed by Romo and Falbo (1996) in their four-year Latino graduation study and the National Center for Educational Statistics. Permission was received by the Texas Press, publisher for these instruments. to use these instruments. The instruments measured the perceptions of "high risk" and "low risk" tenth-grade Mexican American students, parents, and school administrators in regards to four identified factors that influence academic success or school failure.

2. The respondents possessed the knowledge, ability, and desire to answer the questions accurately.

3. The samples were representative of the "high risk" and "low risk" tenth-grade self-declared Mexican American students.

4. The triangulation of both quantitative and qualitative methods provided a broad, in-depth view of students, parents, and school administrators.

5. The students and parents who participated in this study were Mexican American and self-declared themselves to be Mexican American.

Significance of the Problem

The major purpose of this study was to investigate selected factors that may be related to the academic success and nonsuccess of Mexican American tenth-grade high school students in Yavapai, Arizona. In view of the limited academic performance of Mexican American high school students in general (Reyes & Jason, 1992), it is important to identify groups of students within this population who have attained higher achievement levels and to explore the reasons for their success. In this way, the investigator hopes that the findings can be used by school administrators to improve graduation rates nationwide.

Teachers, parents, students, and school administrators of the Yavapai School District will directly benefit from this study. By understanding how these factors influence students success or failure, the school and the community can be better prepared to identify programs that will assist high-risk students to succeed. High-risk students identified by this study, may themselves, be better off than their counterparts since they will have an opportunity to analyze their academic situation and compare their perceptions with that of low-risk students.

This study focused on the significance of the family, the student himself or herself, peers, or school personnel, including school administrators, in influencing Hispanic students in their academic pursuits. Identifying the causal factors associated with school grades among Hispanics is complicated by the fact that not all of the characteristics defined as contributing to greater risk have been assessed independently in controlled studies. Adding further to the complexity of this subject is the fact that very few data are available that take into account the differences among Hispanic subgroups in the multitude of criteria frequently associated with achievement and non-achievement (Reyes & Jason, 1992). If specific characteristics which influence academic achievement and failure among Mexican American high school students can be identified and systematically related to other variables, teachers, administrators, and other school officials may gain valuable insight into the reasons why Mexican American high school students succeed or fail in school. It is the researcher's hopes that this study assists other students, parents, and school administrators in keeping "high risk" students in school and on the pathway toward high school completion.

Not only did this study reveal factors that influenced students within the Yavapai Union High School District #70 (YUHSD) to leave school prematurely but it also identified the weaknesses and strengths of the existing school system. In identifying which factors influenced students to drop out, one could glean how the existing school system propagates the at-risk problem. School administrators may then take the necessary steps to rectify the problems within their schools in order to minimize the effect these weaknesses have on the at risk child.

The driving force behind the study of successful Mexican American students was a desire to assist school administrators, like myself, to better understand the differences between "high risk" and "low risk" students. Why was it that the investigator succeeded, being high-risk, when others failed? In answering this question, the school administrators can gain a better understanding of the factors that allow some students to succeed where others fail. It is hoped that school administrators will utilize this knowledge to assist Mexican American students succeed in completing a secondary academic program.

Summary

This chapter emphasizes the enormity of the high school dropout problem. This chapter also reveals the need to evaluate existing dropout research in order to identify the at-risk student, and to evaluate and enhance the dropout identification systems operating in the schools. The need to proactively address the issue of any at-risk student is extremely important, but to address the issue of the Hispanic at-risk student is equally important. Recent local, state, and national studies have indicated that Hispanics, specifically Mexican American students in borderline states, have the highest dropout rate of any ethnic group in the country (Cardenas as cited in Sandoval, 1994). In light of the fact that the fastest growing minority group in the United States are Mexican Americans, it is imperative that educators, community, and national leaders take action in order to counteract and eventually prevent such a potentially disastrous trend.

Chapter 1 consists of the introduction, purpose of the study, statement of the problem, definition of terms, delimitation and limitations, the significance of the study, and the summary. Chapter 2 (a) discusses literature relevant to high risk and low risk Hispanic high school students, (b) examines the history, social, and individual implications of the dropout problem, (c) discusses problematic issues surrounding the definition and data collection procedures that propagate the dropout rate, (d) identifies the factors that influence Mexican American high school students to excel or fail in school, (e) explores the impact that each of these factors might play in influencing Mexican American tenth-grade students in remaining or dropping out of school, and (f) identifies the specific variables that impact tenth-grade Mexican American students within the Yavapai Union High School District #70.

Chapter 3 describes the multi-method research design and data collection procedures. The data analysis procedures are explained, and a description of the population selected for this study is given. The questionnaire developed by the researcher is discussed in detail, and issues of reliability and validity are also addressed.

Chapter 4 presents the findings and the results by answering each of the four research questions using the data obtained from the questionnaire/surveys. Under each research question, the perceptions of the parents are presented first; the students, second; and the administrators, last. The perceptions of the administrators are compared and contrasted to the perceptions of the students and parents. In this manner, the results are cross-validated. Within Chapter 5 is a summary of the first four chapters, a study summary, conclusions, recommendations for future studies, and implications.