The purpose of the Workshop on Graduate Student Attrition was to address key gaps in knowledge and data about the problem of graduate school (doctoral-level) attrition. Participants included representatives of the academic research and graduate education administration communities, along with officials from disciplinary professional societies, The…

There is a growing concern at the national, state, and local levels over the number of students who are leaving school without graduating. In response to this concern, Spokane School District No. 81 in Spokane, Washington established a ninth-grade task force to examine the issue of dropouts. This report reviews related literature examined by the…

This report summarizes research on retention and dropouts. Although there has been a recent resurgence of retention programs aimed at students who encounter subject-area difficulties, many studies have questioned the value of retention, especially if it is not accompanied by programs of remediation and individualized learning. However, researchers…

The study provides an overview of what national surveys and the literature say about school dropouts, defined as persons who are neither enrolled in school nor high school graduates. For the last decade, the dropout rate for youth age 16-24 has remained roughly the same, about 13-14 percent. Hispanics, Blacks, and economically and educationally…

This paper presents a study designed to determine the reason first and post-first year students (N=61) chose to leave Chicago Urban University (CUU) prior to graduation. Data were sought from a random sample of 100 students via either a mailed or a telephone survey, with a 61% response rate. The 54-question interview/survey instrument examined the…

The study reported in this document tracked a cohort of Indiana freshmen (about 47,000) with reported majors and categorized them as associate and baccalaureate, resident and nonresident, and part-time and full-time students. The objective to determine how these students fared in the course of the 4 years examined (fiscal years 1985-88). Included…

This book presents an in-depth examination of 142 U.S. school districts (containing at least 5,000 students and 5 percent Hispanic enrollment) in order to understand Hispanic inequities in education and what can be done to correct these inequities. Chapter 1 presents political theory of educational policy. Chapter 2 presents an overview of the…