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This article addresses the impact of high school social workers on the graduation rates of incoming freshmen. Following a review of the limited literature on school social workers and student outcomes, it presents results of a study on the relation between school social workers and graduation rates in the one hundred largest school districts in the United States. Findings of this study indicate that the number of school social workers is positively associated with graduation rates in the 2008-09 academic year after controlling for poverty rate and district size. From this finding, the article raises questions that may guide future research regarding the role of school social workers in achieving positive student outcomes.

Keywords: educational outcomes, graduation rates, school social work

Introduction

Each year, more than 1 million students fail to graduate from high school (Englund, Egeland, & Collins, 2008). Students who drop out of school are associated with higher rates of incarceration and increased mental health problems (Finn, 1987; Rumberger, 2011). Students who fail to graduate within four years are less likely to enter college and thus to have lower lifetime economic opportunities and earnings (Wells & Lynch, 2012). Given the implications of successful and timely graduation from high school, more focus is needed to enhance factors that can support the academic success of students (Jordan, Lara, & McPartland, 1996). This article examines the impact of school social workers on the timely graduation of high school students.

School social workers play an integral role in helping students succeed, and it is imperative that the influence of their work on an array of academic outcomes be better understood (Alvarez, Bye, Bryant, & Mumm, 2013; Clark & Alvarez, 2010; Frey et al., 2013; Kelly et al., 2010). This is especially important in light of the prevailing academic environment in which federal and state educational grants are tied to school district educational performance (Alvarez et al., 2013).

The published research on this topic has thus far looked only at a limited range of factors that affect student outcomes (e.g., Alvarez et al., 2013; Newsome, Anderson-Butcher, Fink, Hall, & Huffer, 2008). The impact of school social workers on the rates of timely graduation for high school students has not been studied previously. To address this gap involving...

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