Student School Engagement as a Potential Predictor of High School Completion

There is a dropout epidemic in the United States. In the US, 25% of high school students do not graduate on time. For Latinos, the number is worse, with only 64% graduating from high school. Current research is clear that 9 th grade is a critical year for keeping students in school. Students that earn all their credits for their core classes in 9 th grade are more likely to graduate than students who fail one or more class during their freshman year. Prior to this study, engagement has been connected to dropout in the literature, but with differing ideas of how to measure engagement. The Student School Engagement Measure (SSEM) could be one tool used to estimate levels of engagement and identify students at risk of dropping out. This study used structural equation modeling to identify whether 8 th grade SSEM scores were a significant predictor of credits earned by the end of 9 th grade. The results of this study indicated that 8 th grade SSEM scores were not a significant predictor of credits earned at the end of 9 th grade, supporting previous research has found that engagement changes from year to year. These findings suggest that measuring engagement over the course of a single year, instead of using the SSEM as a long term predictor, might be a more useful use of the SSEM.