Abstract
Purpose. This study assumes that California's 30 percent dropout rate, which is consistent with national percentages, is not acceptable. The price society pays, directly and indirectly, for this large proportion of unproductive citizens, is counterproductive to a healthy nation. The price paid by the individual dropouts, generally for a lifetime, is unnecessary. Educational reforms have had little to no positive impact on this problem. To date, no study has produced a list of practices specific to continuation high schools that administrators can use to combat these issues. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to elicit a repertoire of "holding power" practices and from them identify the most important practices for continuation high school principals to implement. Procedure. An Expert Delphi Panel was used to elicit a repertoire of "holding power" practices and the most important practices. The Expert Panel consisted of 60 members: 30 continuation high school principals; 10 high achieving secondary school administrators; 10 individuals involved with significant endeavors in the field of self-esteem; and 10 members from alternative "at-risk" educational programs other than continuation high schools. The third group was selected from all of California; the others were selected from the northern section of the state (south to and including Monterey, Kings, Tulare, and Mono counties). The Delphi questionnaire consisted of three iterations. Round I was the practice list formation phase. Rounds II and III had 30 items. Magnitude Estimation was the scaling method used. Principal findings. The "holding power" practices found most important addressed student affective related issues. Of the most highly rated of the eight, practices one and seven relate to formal and informal counseling. Items six and eight pertain to positive student recognition. Practices three and four are associated with discipline and student responsibility. Item two refers to teacher expectations, and five addresses substance abuse prevention. Conclusions and recommendations. To meet the diverse educational needs of the "at risk" student, it is recommended that the educational delivery must evolve from a humanistic school climate as opposed to custodial. A step toward this is utilization of these top "holding power" practices in continuation high schools, as well as adaptations of these practices in middle and secondary conventional schools, and alternative "at-risk" educational programs other than continuation high schools.