| This study was conducted to determine if a relationship exists between school size and high school dropout rate in South Carolina. This study utilized data obtained from the Common Core of Data and the South Carolina State Department of Education for 2004--05 and 2005--06 school years. The student achievement as measured in terms of students' passage rate on HSAP tests, and graduation rate of students were analyzed against school size information to learn if these variables were impacted by the size of the school in which students were enrolled. In addition, school location data was examined against the student dropout rate to find out if there was a relationship between these two variables. Finally, schools' poverty index was inspected against student dropout rate to explore the relationship between these two variables, if any.;Descriptive statistics, Chi-Square test, Analysis of Variance, Pearson's Correlational test, and Scheffe Post Hoc Test were used whenever appropriate and deemed necessary by the researcher to complete this study. The findings of this study found evidence that supports some of the findings about the small school movement. Advocates of small school movement claims that students, especially those who come from low socioeconomic backgrounds and belong to different ethnic groups, stay in school longer and matriculate to graduation. The findings of this study revealed that African American and students with subsidized meals have significantly lower dropout rates in small-sized schools as opposed to large-sized schools. Also, there were significant differences in the observed and expected frequencies of overall dropout rates by gender in medium-sized schools. It was interesting to learn that school size had no significant influence on either the dropout rate or the graduation rate of Whites. Moreover, the findings relating to student achievement (HSAP passage rate) and persistence were inconclusive. Therefore, further research is warranted.;KEY WORDS. Dropout rate, Graduation rate, HSAP passage rate, Poverty index, School size, Socioeconomic status, Student achievement. |
