The Opinion of School Students about the Causes of Chronic Academic Failure in a Selective School (on the Example of the NRU HSE Lyceum)

This work is devoted to the study of the problem of the emergence of a selective type of chronically unsuccessful students in school. The study attempts to understand the essence and mechanism of development of such a phenomenon as chronic academic failure in a selective school by disclosing the idea of ​​students in a selective school about why chronically unsuccessful students appear in it. The aim of this work is to determine the administrative and managerial decisions necessary to minimize the proportion of academically unsuccessful students at the HSE Lyceum. To achieve this goal, a study was carried out, the object of which is the students of the 10th and 11th grades of the Lyceum, characterized by different indicators of academic performance (excellent students, good students, C grade students, poor students, dropped out). A series of semi-structured interviews (N = 42) were conducted with lyceum students studying in various educational areas, during the analysis of which the most common ideas among students about the causes of chronic academic failure in the Lyceum were established. In particular, it was revealed that the trigger of the student's sliding into chronic academic failure is the absence of classes. Generally, the reasons for missing classes can be divided into three groups: 1) involvement in the Olympiad movement outside the Lyceum, 2) physical or mental illness, 3) deliberate absenteeism. In turn, the totality of the reasons for school absenteeism mentioned by lyceum students can be divided into two groups: 1) external (institutional-environmental) reasons and 2) internal (psycho-motivational) reasons. The group of external institutional and environmental reasons includes: 1) Insignificant supervision and freedom of choice of activity. 2) Neutral attitude towards twos and threes. 3) Rationalization of the educational process. 4) The role of the teacher. 5) Outsider grouping. In turn, the group of internal (psycho-motivational) causes include: 1) The initial (dominant) motive for entering a selective school. 2) Lack of educational and metasubject resources. 3) Broken self-esteem and loss of motivation in the learning process. Identifying the ideas of schoolchildren about the causes of chronic academic failure in a selective school made it possible to better understand the nature and mechanism of the development of academic failure, which in turn contributed to the identification of measures necessary to minimize the negative consequences of academic failure for both students and educational institutions. Based on the study, a number of management recommendations were formed aimed at minimizing the proportion of chronically unsuccessful students in a selective school. These recommendations are primarily intended for the leadership of the Lyceum, however, with minor adjustments, they can be applied in other general educational institutions of a selective type.