The Relationship between Experiences at Foster Care and Educational Achievement at College Level (Research Proposal Sample)

The Relationship between Experiences at Foster Care and Educational Achievement at College Level
Name of StudentAuthor AffiliationCourse Number and NameInstructor NameAssignment Due Date (Month Day, Year)
Abstract
Poor educational performance is prevalent in children with foster care backgrounds. Several factors such as traumatic incidents before foster care, multiple number of placement changes, underrepresentation at secondary and high school level, lack of psychological counselling facilities contribute to the poor educational achievement among students with foster care backgrounds, with many students dropping out at college and some not even finishing high school. This paper attempts to evaluate what factors affect educational achievement at college level and if there are differences in educational achievement between students from foster care backgrounds and between students from non-foster care backgrounds.
Keywords: Foster care, educational achievement, college
The Relationship between Experiences at Foster Care and Educational Achievement at College Level
It has been discussed that even though the United States performs very well in sports, such as American athletes being rewarded the most medals for sport achievement in the 2008 Summer Olympics, the country lags far behind other developed nations when it comes to educational achievement, child mortality, poverty and various circles of child wellbeing (Lesley, 2008). Economists and business executives have asserted that if the US government does not make a better commitment to improving healthcare and the quality of education provided to the younger generation, it will fall behind when it comes to competition with other countries. Moreover, it can no longer ensure that newer generations are in a more advantageous or beneficial position compared with previous generations (Sawhill, 2008).
Foster care homes are prevalent across developed countries and they are set up in order to protect children who have been verbally or physically abused or children who do not receive adequate care in their own homes. Moreover, children are also sent to foster-care homes when they exhibit severe behavior and emotional issues that is hard for the parents to deal with. There is numerous literature to support the existence of foster care homes built for this purpose (Jackson, 1994; Dumaret, Coppel-Batsch, & Couraud, 1997; Flynn, & Biro, 1998; Vinnerljung, Öman, & Gunnarson, 2005).