TPC Journal V7, Issue 2 - FULL ISSUE

The Professional Counselor | Volume 7, Issue 2 177 group. Although the initial sample was 100, with statistical listwise deletion the sample was reduced to 52. This study utilized a multivariate analysis of variance, an analysis that is unable to use datasets with missing data points because a likewise deletion is utilized (Pallant, 2016). When using listwise deletion, a case is dropped from an analysis because it has a missing value in at least one of the specified variables (e.g., attendance, grades, discipline, SAAS-R). When conducting research with this population, there is always the risk of not being able to obtain all needed data because a participant is no longer in the same school or school district. The ethnicity of participants was as follows: 85% Black, 5% Hispanic, 6% White, 2% Multiracial and 2% Asian. Seventy-two percent of the participants were male and 28% were female. The ethnicity of the sample was aligned with the ethnicity of the students who attended the alternative school. The majority of students who attended the alternative school were Black. Sixty-eight percent of participants were receiving free lunch, 12% were receiving reduced fee lunch, and 20% were paying full lunch fees. The participants’ ages ranged from 14 to 19 years old. The demographics of the sample were representative of the alternative school demographics. Recruitment of participants was facilitated through the alternative school exit interviews. All students exiting the alternative school must partake in an exit interview to ensure they have met all requirements to return to their home school. Parents and students were informed about the intervention program. They also were informed about which group the student would qualify to be in, which was determined by the home school the student attended. Parents and students were informed that students’ grades, attendance and behavioral information would be collected as part of an ongoing evaluation to determine the effectiveness of the program. Parents and students were made aware of the attitude assessments students would complete two separate times during the school year. They were provided with an information packet with consent forms, an explanation of the program and contact information. If consent was obtained, the participants were given the SAAS-R. Behavioral and School Attitude Outcomes The data collection packet consisted of one measure, the SAAS-R (McCoach & Siegle, 2002). The SAAS-R was administered during the exit process at the alternative school and after participants completed the intervention. In addition, the school district provided the attendance records (measured by individual class periods missed), discipline records (measured by discipline infractions [e.g., warnings, school suspension, out-of-school suspension, Saturday school detention]) and credit accrual (measured by the percentage of courses passed the school year prior to exiting the alternative school and the exiting school year) for the students in both the treatment and control groups. School Attitude Assessment Survey-Revised (SAAS-R) . The SAAS-R (McCoach & Siegle, 2002) is a 35-question assessment with five subscales, including students’ academic self-perceptions, attitudes toward teachers, attitudes toward school, goal valuation and self-regulation. Students were assessed pre-treatment (pretest) and at the end of the school year and conclusion of the treatment group (posttest). Both groups were assessed pre-return to their home school during exit interviews (pretest), which served as the baseline pretest, and again at the end of the school year (posttest). Students answer the 35 questions on a 6-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree; 6 = strongly agree). Subscales were scored by totaling the response value of each question and then dividing that by the number of questions. The scores range from one to six. Scores of one to three suggest negative attitudes, and scores of four to six suggest positive attitudes (Berger, 2011; McCoach & Siegle, 2002; Suldo, Shaffer, & Shaunessy, 2008). McCoach and Siegle (2003) investigated the validity of the SAAS-R with 176 high school students while Suldo and colleagues (2008) investigated the validity of the SAAS-R with 321