Article Review on "Education Outcomes for Youth in Foster Care"

Article Review 6 pages (2066 words) Sources: 6

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Foster Care and Education

Educational Outcomes for Youth in Foster Care

The importance of this issue for social workers -- vis-a-vis the educational achievements of at-risk individuals and the overall, ongoing need for an educated, productive society -- is reflected in the fact that an estimated 800,00 youth are living in foster care environments annually in the U.S. -- and of those, 16,000 leave their foster care homes "as young adults" (Williams, et al., p. 500). Moreover, children in foster care are "one of the most educationally vulnerable populations" in U.S. schools (Zetlin, et al., 2006, p. 268). Without a good education, foster care youth are too often destined for a life of poverty and pain.

Zetlin, Andrea G., Weinberg, Lois a., and Shea, Nancy M. (2006). Improving Educational

Prospects for Youth in Foster Care: The Education Liaison Model. Intervention in School

And Clinic, 41(5), 267-272.

The opening pages of this piece offer data that provide a framework for understanding the current realities within the foster care milieu -- and hence offer a useable framework for this research article. The education of foster care young people is no less important than the education of any child, but foster care students "tend to struggle academically and socially" (Zetlin, p. 268). Studies show children in foster care have "higher rates of absenteeism and disciplinary referrals" as well as "significant below-grad-level academic performance." (Zetlin). Data gathered by Zetlin also reflect studies that show children in foster care have higher incidences of "grade retention" and "disproportionate rates of special education placement" (Goerge, Van Vooris, Grant, Casey, & Robinson, 1992; Leiter & Johnson 1997; Parrish et al., 2001).

Among the reasons given for the lack of attention to education for foster care children is because of the fact that the courts concentrate on "the crisis that brings the family to the court" in the first place, on "finding a safe haven" for the child, and not on social/educational outcomes.

Shin, Sunny Hyucksun. (2003). Building Evidence to Promote Educational Competence of Youth in Foster Care. Child Welfare, Vol. LXXXII (5), 615-632.

How are adolescents housed in Foster care environments progressing in their ability to read? Reading skills indeed are vitally essential vis-a-vis future educational success. The study conducted by Shin in this research included a random sample of 152 youth (between ages 16.5 and 17.5 years) that were in Foster care through the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. Sixty-four percent of the youth were African-American; 28% were Caucasian; 4% were Hispanic (Shin, 2003, p. 620). The questionnaires were used to survey "predictors of reading ability" based on multiple regression analyses that "indicated…four factors -- aspiration for higher education, placement in kinship care, participation in extracurricular activities, and drug use -- accounted for 39% of the variance in reading ability" (Shin, p. 615).

The research utilized "nine clusters of variables" that had been identified as "important predictors" of a student's school success (Shin, p. 620). Those included demographic, birth-family, individual, mental health, placement experience, school, mental health service use, victimization, and employment" (Shin, p. 620). The research used descriptive analyses to identify individual characteristics, placement experience, educational performance, and academic achievement (p. 620). To evaluate the link between the individual and "placement characteristics of older foster youth and their reading abilities" the research utilized bivariate analyses. As to the strategy for assessing "salient predictors of reading ability of youth in foster care" the research employed "backward regression models" (p. 620).

The results showed that 34% (52) of the 152 adolescents reported that they had been placed in "special education" classes; the author explains that 34% is higher than the national average (which is 20%) for foster care youth to have been placed in special education (p. 621). About one-fifth (31 youth) reported that they "dropped out of school" within the previous two years (p. 621) and one-third showed a reading level that was "below the 6th grade" (p. 621). Another 31% had reading skills that hovered between 6th and 8th grades and 18% were reading at levels between 9th and 11th grades (p. 621). Only 18%, according to Shin's data, demonstrated reading levels at or above 12th grade.

Not surprisingly, those adolescents who said they aspired to higher education had "better problem-solving skills" and were more likely than the others to "score higher on reading achievement" tests (p. 622). Also not surprisingly, but pertinent to reading skills and education, those adolescents who had been placed in foster care environments with family relatives ("kinship care"), "showed significantly higher scores on reading skills" (p. 623). Moreover, youth in "kinship" care situations were "less likely to have mental health problems" (p. 623); youth with mental health issues will find educational experiences far more challenging than those with robustly healthy mental conditions.

Fernandez, Elizabeth. (2008). Unravelling Emotional, Behavioural and Educational Outcomes

In a Longitudinal Study of Children in Foster-Care. British Journal of Social Work, No. 38, 1283-1301.

Using data from a longitudinal study of children in Australia who had long-term experiences in foster care, the author explains that findings from this study "…go some way in demonstrating the positive outcomes of care" (Fernandez, 2008, p. 1283). This is an important topic because recent studies reflect "…a distressing level of placement instability" which often results in "elevated emotional and behavioural problems" (p. 1284), and so the value of this study is that strategies that work out well for children should be emulated and brought out into the open. Teachers and caregivers used the Achenbach Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL) to assess competencies. Caregiver responses to the needs, struggles and strengths were assessed at 4 months (following entry into a care home) and then at two-year intervals thereafter. The subjects were 59 children (29 boys, 30 girls) ages 8 to 18. About a third of these children had "more than five placements" in homes (p. 1286). The results of the study show that (in Assessment #1) upwards of 50% of the children were reported to have had attitude, motivational and discipline problems in school -- and they showed a "poor academic performance" level. Sixty-two percent of the 59 children had been in three or more different schools (p. 1286). The study was set up with non-foster-care students as the "control" group; children in foster care had higher scores on "aggressive behaviour" than the control group (p. 1290). Foster children scored highest for "working hard" and the lowest score for "behaving appropriately" (p. 1290). Assessment #2 shows that foster care children "improved in all areas of adaptive functioning" (happy, learning, good behavior, academic performance; working hard) (p. 1293). The study showed "systematic gathering of foster [caregivers] perceptions early in placement" is vitally important; and eliciting teachers' perspectives of the progress foster children achieve -- juxtaposed with a non-foster child matched by age and sex to the child in care -- is also very important in assessment.

Weinberg, Lois a., Zetlin, Andrea, and Shea, Nancy M. (2009). Removing Barriers to Educating

Children in Foster Care Through Interagency Collaboration: A Seven County Multiple-Case Study. Child Welfare, 88(4), 77-110.

The focus of this study is how to remove barriers that otherwise block positive educational experiences for foster care children. Agencies and caregiver supervisors can't know how to improve educational opportunities for foster youth if they don't understand the problems that exist. And so, the two-year California study was done collaboratively between child protective services (CPS), local educational agencies (LEA) and other public agencies in 7 counties to find problems and present solutions. By the end of the first year of the collaboration the salient question was: will the CPS, with their education partners, identify "two goals that they would work on" in order to improve educational outcomes for foster children? (p. 83). One of the collaborating organizations was the Annie E. Casey Foundation (AECF) and its "family-to-family initiative" (building community partnership to keep foster children in their "home communities" and involving "birthparents" as team members) (p. 80). Problems that the study detected in Stinemore County (similar to other counties in the study) included: a) little or no understanding "of each other's agencies"; b) CPS were not aware of what school districts foster youths were in; c) foster youth services (FYS) "frequently did not know who held education rights"; d) school districts didn't know who had educational rights on foster youth; e) no data-sharing existed between LEAs and CPS (Weinberg, p. 90). In "many counties" social workers, judges, caregivers and others "did not have adequate information" about laws governing foster children (p. 88). After initial evaluations revealed a lack of coordination, the study shows that six of the seven counties "developed interagency education work groups" to further clarify barriers to foster children's education. The conclusion: CPS agencies are far more likely to make "needed changes" when they note that "sister agencies" in nearby jurisdictions made those changes successfully "and can share their procedures, policies…related to the changes" (p. 108).

Pecora, Peter J., Kessler, Ronald C., O'Brien, Kirk, White, Catherine Roller, Williams, Jason,

Hiripi, Eva, English, Diana, White,… READ MORE

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