"Hurry, Ms. Gomez, I'm Waiting to Graduate": Systems Ensuring Equity for Youths at Risk of Dropping Out

• In Event: Understanding How Organizational Systems Shape Student Equity and Teacher Agency

Abstract

Systems thinking in the context of schools can be applied as a problem-solving framework or a restructuring tool for disrupting ineffective education systems. This case study explores a unique intervention program that served as a leverage point to disrupt the complex issue of students dropping out in a traditional high school (one part of a system) within a large urban district (a status quo system). Part of a broader 3-year mixed methods case study, qualitative findings provide insight into Latinx high school students’ participation, who reported once feeling “pushed out,” and their increasing sense of belonging and empowerment in an innovative program with educational practices aimed at disrupting the current high school system to ameliorate educational inequity.

Authors

• Margaret Sauceda Curwen, Chapman University

• Keith E. Howard, Chapman University

• Nicol R. Howard, University of Redlands

• Anaida Colon-Muniz, Chapman University