How Schools alienate Students at Risk: A Model for Examining Proximal Classroom Variables

Evidence suggests that dropping out of school may be a symptom of institutional rather than individual pathology, and researchers have called for a new cycle of empirical studies designed to identify alienating processes within classrooms and schools. Factors within classrooms and schools transform students at risk into a discrete subculture that is incompatible with academic success. The result is a feeling of estrangement and failure. I designed a research model to determine whether the treatment, behavior, perception, and cognition of at-risk students are significantly different from those of their not-at-risk classmates. A theoretical foundation for this approach is drawn from two sources: (a) labeling theory, and (b) evidence that cognitive activity is interwoven with the environmental context in which it occurs. For an empirical foundation, I review an eclectic body of literature describing chronic low achievers as a distinct student subculture within classrooms. Then I define the research model in greater detail, suggesting variables and types of data that researchers could use to juxtapose the viewpoints of at-risk and not-at-risk classmates. Finally, unique aspects of the model are clarified by analyzing three recent ethnographic student-at-risk studies that also proceed from the assumption that schools (not students) are the primary cause of at-risk status.