Research Paper-Phase 3 1

Morgan Shafer
4-15-15
SW 3810
Wayne State University

Research Paper-Phase 3 2
Statement of the Problem
Working in a Foster Care Agency would mean working with children of all ages
that have been taken out of their homes for their safety. Its a job to keep these children
safe and find a loving and caring family to take over that responsibly of keeping them
safe until they are placed in a forever home.
Being that foster children never have a stable home until they are adopted they
tend to move around a lot and change schools according to where they are located. Do the
children in the foster care system have a lesser chance of graduating high school?
The social problem for these children is being in the system in general. Theres
not enough education out there for parents who have problems, such as drug addictions or
alcohol addiction, to learn how to better themselves and create a better life. This leads to
the end result in having their child/children taken away from them and possibly never
being able to see them again. This not only creates a problem for the adult, but the
children being taken out of the home and being placed somewhere they are unfamiliar
with and could create problems within oneself.
Research Design
The intervention study What Happens to Foster Kids: Educational Experiences of
a Random Sample of Foster Care Youth and a Matched Group of Non-Foster Care Youth
by Wendy Whiting Blome is an experimental study. This experimental study compared
data from a longitudinal study called High School and Beyond. Having this data from
another study allowed Wendy to make the comparison of youth in the foster care system
and youth that are intact with their family.

Research Paper-Phase 3 3
Four threats to internal validity for this intervention study are history, maturation
or the passage of time, testing, and selection biases. Threats to the history of these
participates can cause them to drop out of the study. If the participates in the foster care
group are placed in another foster care home they may not be able to continue with the
study and forced to drop out. It had also stated in the article that a lot of the foster youths
could not read or even comprehend what they were reading on the questioner, they had to
have someone read them the questions. These youths were at a disadvantage because they
didnt understand what they were answering, even though this data was collected over a
period of time these youths are already set up for failure. Yes, the youths are maturing but
there knowledge doesnt have the advantage to mature because of the circumstances they
are in. As for the testing, also not being able to read the questioner some of the volunteers
reading could have explained the question to the foster care youth child, while another
volunteer was just simply reading the question to the child. This could have created
different responses within each question that could have affected the results of the data.
For selection bias, although this intervention did not include how they found these
children or where they found them it very well could have been bias. They could have
choose foster care children from a poor location and choose the comparison group, the
kids who are intact with families, from a richer location which would tinder the results
because they are not from the same location or place. The location could affect the data
by how the foster care children are portrayed at a poorer school and may not have all the
advantages that a foster care child could have at a wealthier school.
A scenario would be a parent of a foster youth taking the time to make sure the
childs homework is complete and helping them when its needed. This would help the

Research Paper-Phase 3 4
foster child be more productive in school and allow them to have the advantage to
become more knowledgeable. Not becoming one of the statistics in this study where they
use the excuse of the teacher being a reason they drop out of school. Having the foster
parents more available to the child and acting like they care how the child is doing in
school, helping them with homework and being involved in their school would have a
major effect on the dropout rates of the youth in foster care.
The first criterion for inferring causality stems from the foster system. The foster
care system places kids in different homes all the time, switching schools and causing the
child to bounce all over the place. Children get placed with foster parents who are not
being involved with the child within school. They dont help with homework or even
make sure that its done. The child than begins to study less and less and never
understands whats going on in school. Not being able to comprehend or feeling like
someone wants you to exceed in school the child than decides to drop out of school.
These two variables covey with one another, if the parents are showing no interest to the
child about school why should the child be interested in school? Its very hard to do
something when a child feels like no one cares if they excel in it or not. This may be why
it is most likely so easy for the youth in the foster care to drop out of school because no
one is encouraging them to want to go or that they should go and get a good education for
themselves. Something else that could have caused the foster care youth to graduate from
high school for the third requirement would be high schools having after school programs
for the children to do their homework and get help if needed. Parents have a major role in
a childs life, which shows in this particular study. The youth who have intact with
families have at least one parent who is more likely to be helping with homework and

Research Paper-Phase 3 5
being involved in the childs school, which is causing more successful rates for the
children with families. They have a higher percentage of graduating and going to college
after. Whereas the children in the foster care system dont have parents that ask questions
about homework or involve themselves with the childs school. The results show in the
statistics that the youth in the foster care have a higher rate of dropping out, even three
months shy of graduation and not continuing on to get a college degree.

O (Base Line)
O (Base Line)

X (Intervention)

O (Results)
O (Results)

Sampling
Wendy chose a random sampling to collect her data for the youth in foster care
while comparing it to youth that has intact with at least one parent or guardian. The
advantage of the approach is that the children are randomly picked so that everyone gets
a fair chance to be in the groups without any bias impressions. A disadvantage is that
these children are only picked from schools; also choosing adoption agency and other
events like sports that foster care children are involved in would give this a more range of
variety and randomization. Based on the information given within this intervention study
it cannot be generalized, there is not enough information to base the generalization on. If
the intervention included how the youth were found and how they chose to have the
questionnaire than it could be generalized. How each individual was found could and
how the questionnaire was given could most defiantly change the results of the
intervention. The students could have been found by putting up flyers in the school or

Research Paper-Phase 3 6
from a social worker requesting them to be in this intervention, some kids in the school
that could have greatly helped this intervention may have not wanted to have part in it.
The questionnaire could have also been over the phone, in a group, etc. Not knowing how
the information was given could change the result by possibly having someone tell the
youth what to put down or say for the questionnaire that would potentially create false
data.

Measurement
The dependent variable for this intervention study is the high school graduation
rates. The independent variable is whether the child is in foster care or has an intact
family. This intervention study is not reliable or validated because as stated before Many
of the children interviewed could not read the questionnaire with comprehension or write
responses. Volunteers frequently had to read the questions, even to older children. If
some of the children dont understand what they are being asked, they may just say
something or write something down because they dont want to feel embarrassed or dumb
which would then make some of the results altered.
An alternative for this study instead of doing open-ended survey would be to do
closed ended survey. The students would only have to answer yes or no questions and
wouldnt be that difficult to comprehend what they are being asked. Another alternative
would be asking more present questions about school rather than about their schooling in
fifth grade. Asking how many times the students moved up to fifth grade doesnt show
the actual number of times that the student may have moved because it was many years
ago. The last alternative could have been asking the foster care children how many

Research Paper-Phase 3 7
different times theyve been placed with different foster parents, the statistics show that
moving around a lot and changing schools has a great deal of impact on the childs
schooling and their behavior in school.

Data Collection
This intervention study was done by a questionnaire that allows the expectations
and experiences of foster youth and their matched respondents to be analyzed. This
particular study had an opportunity to use a comparison group, the youth that are intact
with their families that responded to the same exact questions at the same time as the
youth in the foster care system. This study has an advantage that would be considered a
major strength since other studies have never had the chance to collect data the way this
study had. Having a comparison group to ask the same questions at the same time has not
existed in other studies. A disadvantage to that however, not all the students were able to
understand the questions that were given. Not all the students were at the same reading
level as others, some were at a third grade reading level in high school. The questionnaire
given was not suited for all the students that were being apart of this study.
An alternative measurement strategy that could impact the findings would be an
interview process. Having a one on one interview with some of the volunteers from the
study could potentially create more sufficient results. If the group of the foster care
children are having a hard time comprehending or even read the questions they are not
going to give the correct answers. If the volunteer is just talking with them, asking them
questions the questions would be laid out better for the student to understand because

Research Paper-Phase 3 8
they do not have to read themselves. If the student than didnt understand they have the
volunteer to ask questions and maybe get more of an explanation rather than just reading
a questionnaire. Although the interview process would more than likely take more time
than just having the students fill out the questionnaire, the results would be more
accurate. They could even do just the interview process with just the foster care group if
they didnt have that much time to spare since they were having trouble with the
questionnaire. Accommodations should be made so that both the youth in foster care and
the youth with intact families have a chance of giving honest and accurate information
they can provide for this study.
Ethics and Cultural Consideration
The only cultural issue that is present in this study is the basics of how different
the foster care children are compared to the children intact with their families. They have
different lifestyles that create different outcomes in their life. The study stated that More
than twice as many foster youth had changed schools three times or more since fifth
grade and a full 80 percent of the compared group had never changed schools since fifth
grade.
A cultural issue that could have been present in this study, but was not included
was the fact that all these children could have been of different cultures and could do
school differently. The culture was not stated for an issue, but not every culture does the
same thing. Some cultures dont see the point in graduating high school; they can do
things at home for the family and other cultural instances. A second issue that could have
been present was the foster children being placed with a family of a different culture. It

Research Paper-Phase 3 9
would be difficult to live with a family that a child doesnt share the same culture with,
the family may view things differently than the child has known.
The study approach makes it very clear that the foster care lifestyle is extremely
different from the children with intact families. However, the study does not state
anything about different cultures that may have been present or if there was any at all. A
different procedure would be to include the different cultures of the students that were
included within this study to get a better understanding of the different cultures that may
have played a role in the results of the study.
The ethical issues that could have arisen in the conduct of this research study are
first of all doing a study with minors. Doing anything with minors, there has to be
parents consent. Some parents may have not wanted to have their child involved in this
study or had them drop out of the study which is not included. Another issue could have
been if the ages of this children were included if the student had dropped out of school
before the legal age would they report it or not. A different approach to possibly take
would be to state how they found these students to participate in the study and if they had
to get a parent to consent since it was with minors in a school setting. Also including the
ages of the students and each time that they were participating in this study since it went
on for more than one setting. Seeing the ages of the students and seeing how much had
changed since the last questionnaire would have been interesting to see and have more
information on.
Results and Implications
The youth that were involved with the foster care system compared to the
comparison group, children with intact families, the foster children had a much higher

Research Paper-Phase 3 10
rate of dropping out of high school and they were less likely to have completed a GED or
have a high school diploma by the last questionnaire date. The foster youth who did by
chance graduate high school did not have a lot of financial assistants for education from
their parent or guardian, which lead them to training programs rather than a four year
college. The youth in foster care also tended to have more discipline problems in school
related to moving and changing schools a lot. The parents or guardians of these foster
children were less likely to be involved in homework and monitoring the homework,
leading the children to not spend very much time on their homework at all.
The intervention study shows effectiveness to especially the youth in foster care
because it is stated by the evidence and statistics within this study that the parents in their
lives are less active and provide much less compared to the comparison group. It states
how moving around a lot causes many disciplinary problems and educational problems
for the child.
The implications and barriers of this study to create the plan could have been
difficult. Coming up with a questionnaire so that they would hope all the questions would
be suited enough for the answers they wanted to get out of this study. It had to be a major
problem when some of the children in the foster care group did not understand the
questions being asked and they had to be read to them. Which the kids may have still not
understood the questions. The amount of children that dropped out of school also might
have been hard to find contact again, not knowing where they were or really if they
moved to another location.
The social problem stated before, being in the foster care system in general is
most certainly correct, especially relating to this study it proves it with the facts and

Research Paper-Phase 3 11
statistics they have found. Being in this system can already be a tough lifestyle, but
having the parents or guardians the child is living with being less involved with their
schooling, having to move around foster house to foster house really creates disruption in
everything they do. The foster care system is no place where a child has the ability to be
successful, not having the financial needs that they need to go to four-year college or
without the distraction of moving all the time they are being set up for failure. This is not
fair to the child because they didnt choose to be put in the system or to have the life they
have to deal with. This study is valid because they took all the necessary steps they found
needed to collect the information from the students; however this is not applicable
because there is no information on where and how they found these students. Theres not
enough information to generalize the information necessary.

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References
What Happens to Foster Kids: Educational Experiences of a Random Sample of
Foster Care Youth and a Matched Group of Non-Foster Care Youth. (1997). Child and
Adolescent Social Work, 14(1), 41-55.