ABSTRACT
Students who are disengaged from learning and schooling are a primary concern of researchers, educators, parents, and the nation at large. Unfortunately, some students do not like school, do not feel like a valued member of the school community, are skeptical about the value of schooling for their future lives, feel a disjunction between their lives at home and at school, and engage in disruptive behavior. In and of itself, this is disheartening. But the long-term implications of these indicators of disaffection are profound. These signs of disaffection are often the early signs of impending school failure, school dropout, and risky behaviors (Comer, 1987; Finn, 1989; Ianni, 1989; Steinberg, Blinde, & Chan, 1984). Research on school failure and dropout indicates that they are not discrete events in students’ lives. Rather they are processes, often with a host of experiences and indicators foreshadowing them, and often with long-term consequences that extend beyond the event itself (Kerckhoff & Bell,
1997-1998). Negative experiences that lead to dropping out of high school can start much earlier in elementary and middle schools (Krohn, Lizotte, & Perez, 1997). Furthermore, these processes of disengagement need not lead to dropping out or failure per se-students may remain in school long enough to graduate, but they may be “virtual dropouts,” disengaged from the academic and social experiences of school, with long-term negative implications.
