Positive support teams : interventions for students of poverty to improve attendance, test scores, and graduation rate in a rural Missouri high school

Abstract

Effects of an intervention system, Positive Support Teams, (PST) were examined in a case study using critical inquiry analysis. The case study analyzed the effect of the PST program on the attendance, End of Course Exam scores, and graduation rate of low-income students in a large rural high school in the Missouri. The test scores decreased for the cohort with access to PST compared to the cohort that did not have access to PST. Attendance improved for students with access to PST but not in a manner statistically significant. Graduation, however, did show a large increase from low-income students without access to PST to students with PST access. In future research, a series of graduating cohorts would show if any trend exists between the existence of the PST program and student outcomes.