Students drop out of school because of a variety of family, economic, and racial factors that can be categorized as either alienation, lack of motivation, or disadvantage. The key to reducing the dropout rate is helping youth to overcome their sense of disconnection. Students with low motivation to attend school have shown improvement in school…

This practice-application digest addresses what vocational education can do to reduce the almost 30 percent dropout rate among U.S. students. The first section describes factors that place students at risk, focusing on factors included in the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction's definition of the term "at-risk." In the next…

President Bush's National Education Goals for the year 2000 include increasing the percentage of students graduating from high school, increasing the percentage of dropouts who return later to complete a high school degree or its equivalent, and closing the gap in graduation rates between minority group students and White students. Census figures…