Students with emotional and behavioral disorders have the highest dropout rates of any student group--about 40%. The outcomes for students who drop out of school are dire but are particularly bleak for students with poor academic, interpersonal, and decision-making skills. Helping students earn a high school diploma and gain the skills needed to…

The time right after treatment for substance abuse is a particularly vulnerable time for adolescents; a time made more difficult by the expectation that they will return to their high school. Traditional high schools are often a high-risk environment for students who are working on maintaining their sobriety. Recovery schools offer an alternative…

A striking convergence of research, documentation, commentary, and policy in the past five years strongly suggests that an almost exclusive focus on academic knowledge and skills is an incomplete solution. Additional behaviors, skills, and mindsets--sometimes called metacognitive skills or 21st-century skills--are just as necessary for academic…

In 2009, "Community College Week" named Northeast Alabama Community College (NACC) one of the fastest growing community colleges in America. In the early 2000s, the college, which is located in the rural Appalachian region of Alabama, had begun efforts to increase enrollment. These efforts included providing online registration, online…

Peer Resources is at the heart of positive youth development. Trained youth serving in roles such as mentor, tutor, mediator, leader, and educator can change the norms of a school and community. Utilizing people as resources is an important concept to embrace. During the last seven years, peer mentors have reduced the drop-out rate of 16- and…

For over 17 years, Boston Day and Evening Academy has served a population of young people often left behind: those who are off track to high school graduation or who have dropped out altogether. Through its competency-based approach, BDEA has tackled one of the toughest education conundrums of our time: how to recover low-skilled students two or…

In 2000, 6% of students in the Guilford County Schools (Greensboro, North Carolina) dropped out, and the school board demanded action. After considering a variety of options, the district turned to a small-school concept called the "middle college high school" to help reconnect those students and keep them in school. A middle college…

Chana High School, a continuation high school in California which provides an alternative approach to education for students unable and/or unwilling to find success in conventional schools is evaluated. The school offers a flexible and personalized instruction approach in an octamester schedule: the school year is divided into seven parts with a…

The Career Intern Program is an alternative school for dropouts and potential dropouts, which enables these students to complete high school, improve their basic skills, and acquire occupational knowledge. This report briefly describes the program and its students, presents 1975 evaluation results, and lists critical features necessary for…

The Community Experimental Education Center (CEEC) serves 50 disadvantaged students, ages 16 to 20, unable to function well in traditional schools. Each student must complete 33 competencies in career, consumer, and life skills. This report discusses the program design, funding, and staffing and lists the 33 competencies. (SJL)

The purpose of this practicum was to develop, implement, and evaluate a two-way communication program for Del Paso High School. The overall goal was to create an ever-increasing circle of people well informed about the school--an ambiance, an environment of knowledge and understanding. Relying on the experience and examples of other administrators…

This paper describes a course of study offered by Bradford College in West Yorkshire, Great Britain, to twenty 16-19 year old students of Asian background who left school alienated from education as a process and school as an institution. The program offers English, prevocational, and vocational courses with the goal of improving the students'…

All superintendents of schools in cities of 5,000 population and over were recently invited by the United States Commissioner of Education to describe plans or methods they had worked out in their respective schools during the past few years. In response to this invitation, several hundred letters were received. Some gave complete accounts of one…