Like other major cities, Philadelphia has a huge dropout problem: almost 50 percent of students do not graduate from high school. Mayor Michael Nutter wants to cut this number in half and simultaneously get more of the city’s students into college.

A new study by Temple University researchers shows how one program is successfully reversing the dropout trend. “Schools as sites for transformation: Exploring the contribution of habitus,” was recently published online ahead of print in Youth and Society.

Professors Erin Horvat and James Earl Davis studied the successful YouthBuild program, for the first time examining how it succeeds in transforming the lives of high school dropouts. Begun in 1992 and operating in more than 273 sites in 45 states, YouthBuild, combines academic class work with training in home construction. The program has positive results, with 50 percent of students completing the program, 76 percent getting jobs or further education and 52 percent receiving their GED or diploma.

The researchers analyzed qualitative data from 57 graduates at eight YouthBuild sites and identified several keys to the program’s success.

“Our findings show that by intentionally altering the disposition of students, the program both improves social and economic position and provides graduates with diverse vocational opportunities,” said Horvat. “The changes we documented were both internal through greater self esteem and self knowledge, and external with improved material conditions.”

The researchers specifically attribute YouthBuild’s success to three factors: the program gives students the opportunity to develop self-esteem; it offers the opportunity to accomplish something of value; and it develops students’ capacity to contribute to the welfare of others.

“The ability to accomplish something was accompanied by the unanticipated realization that they could also help others,” said Horvat. “The power of this discovery cannot be underestimated because we believe this is where the most enduring change took place. It fundamentally changed the way many students viewed their place in the world.”

This stands in sharp contrast to the pessimistic outlook on life and their future found in students before they joined the program.

Some experts blame schools for contributing to the dropout problem, explains Horvat. However, the YouthBuild program provides evidence that schools can actually help solve the problem.

The researchers believe the YouthBuild program offers lessons for the education system. If schools are to be sites where similar transformations in students’ fundamental beliefs about themselves and the world can occur, an approach like YouthBuild’s that meets students’ myriad needs may be required, they explain.

Horvat and Davis are on the faculty of Temple’s College of Education.