Abstract:
Although access to education in the United States has improved for students across race, class, ethnicity, and gender, not all demographic groups’ progress has kept pace with access (Mujic, 2015). Over the past two decades, more high school dropouts have been enrolled in public schools serving predominantly African American and Hispanic students of low socioeconomic status (Mujic, 2015). This portraiture study involved interviewing and observing six participants in an established nontraditional educational setting. The study aimed to examine educators’ perceptions regarding using a nontraditional school reform model to improve graduation rates in an identified urban school district serving predominantly African American and Hispanic students of low socioeconomic status. National, state, and local education may benefit from these findings to improve graduation rates nationwide. School districts and individual schools may also benefit from these findings and adopt the strategies employed to increase the graduation rates for the students they serve.