Abstract
The relationships among school commitment, student perceptions of school efforts to facilitate student involvement, and self determination and behavioral and educational outcomes were examined. The behavioral outcomes model analyzed the relationships among school commitment in early high school and substance use and school delinquency in early high school, as well as substance use in later high school. It was hypothesized and concluded that low school commitment predicts higher frequencies of substance use and school delinquency. The educational outcomes model tested for differences in late high school among general and special education students across gender on school commitment, student perceptions on school efforts to facilitate student involvement, and self determination. Significant differences in school commitment were found between general and special education students. The educational outcomes model analyzed the predictive relationship between school commitment, student perceptions of school efforts to facilitate school involvement, and self determination to determine whether students were on track for high school graduation with a standard diploma, as measured by school grades and FCAT-SSS scores. School commitment and student perceptions of school efforts to facilitate student involvement predicted whether students have earned English credits, but not mathematics credits. Student involvement also predicted whether students passed the FCAT-SSS, controlling for prior academic achievement as measured by the FCAT-NRT. Self determination was found to contribute to predicting the passing of the mathematics FCAT-SSS.