The majority of adolescents communicate via text-based messaging, particularly through WhatsApp, a widely used free communication application. Written content on WhatsApp has the methodological potential to provide rich qualitative interview data. This study compares data collected using text-based WhatsApp versus face-to-face interview…

The author examined school district reports on the dropout problem from several large urban school systems, looking specifically at the definition of dropout, information collection procedures, and the method used to determine the dropout rate. The need for greater consistency in such reports is discussed. (MT)

Issues and considerations likely to be confronted in designing and constructing longitudinal institutional databases or studies are examined, including operational definitions of retention and attrition. The intent is to reduce current limitations in dropout research. (MSE)

Dallas school district attempted to determine whereabouts of students who did not return to school in fall. Found a large portion of "no-show" students matriculating elsewhere. Previously, these students would have been classified as dropouts and used to determine the dropout rate. The new accounting procedure reduced the annual dropout rate from…

Argues that most dropout prevention attempts have been hampered by the lack of an unbiased, coherent and easily accessible source of data on the total and at risk populations of young people. Provides preliminary data on several groups of students not characterized by traditional dropout descriptors. Offers recommendations for improvement in…

This article shows how the methods of survival analysis (also known as event history analysis) lend themselves to the study of the timing of educational events. Using examples from teacher attrition and student dropout research, survival methods are introduced for building statistical models of the risk of event occurrence over time. (Author/SLD)

In an extensive review of research on participation in adult education, the author discusses limitations and problems in past studies. If lifelong learning principles are to be adopted worldwide, he suggests that participation data be systematically collected and experimental research be rigorously conducted. (SK)

Participating school districts conforming to the standardized dropout reporting system of a pilot project of the National Center for Education Statistics indicate that revising collection and reporting can be difficult but may yield more accurate results. Recognizing long-term payoffs, administrators nevertheless dislike the time and expense of…

The ASPIRA Association in the District of Columbia conducted a longitudinal multimethod study with 1,152 students based on school records, interviews, the High School and Beyond study, and 1-year followup to study dropouts among Hispanic-American students in 5 cities: Chicago, Miami, Newark, Milwaukee, and San Antonio. Findings represent an…

To make educational assessments and comparisons meaningful, dropout data must be collected according to the same definitions, by the same procedures, and over the same time periods. A 31-state pilot project represents an effort by the National Center for Education Statistics to standardize data collection about high school completion. (SLD)