This paper illuminates and details some of the traits, pressures and semi-autonomy of the young adult between the ages of 18 and 24 who must confront the barriers and challenges upon returning to secondary school within the high school and the adult education centre context. Focusing on these young adults is fundamentally important to begin to…

Solving America's dropout crisis requires immediate, drastic action. Intractable as the dropout problem may seem, recognition of its magnitude has created an environment ripe for action. Most notably, federal regulations adopted in 2008 require states to use more accurate ways of counting dropouts and holding districts and schools more accountable…

This report is the ACT annual report on the progress of U.S. high school graduates relative to college readiness. This year's report shows that 64% of students in the 2016 US graduating class took the ACT test, up from 59% in 2015 and 49% in 2011. The increased number of test takers over the past several years enhances the breadth and depth of the…

This report is the ACT annual report on the progress of U.S. high school graduates relative to college readiness. This year's report shows that 59% of students in the 2015 U.S. graduating class took the ACT® test, up from 57% last year and 49% in 2011. The increased number of test takers over the past several years enhances the breadth and depth…

A growing body of literature documents the frequency and magnitude of adolescent suicide. Because of the difficulties inherent to the nature of suicide, ascertaining the actual frequency of suicidal completions, attempts, and ideation is extremely difficult. Although there have been many attempts to isolate the correlates and causal factors of…

Cross-sectional studies have revealed many psychosocial correlates of adolescent substance use, including familial, environmental, and personality variables. In this prospective study, correlates of substance use were classified as concomitants or unstable if they covaried with substance use across time, increasing (or decreasing) when substance…

A shooting incident at a rural Pennsylvania junior high school shocked the district into identifying students most prone to violent behavior. Predictors include low self-esteem, asocial behavior, documented family abuse, resistance to counseling, lack of commitment, and depressive or suicidal behavior. Initiating a caring advisory program is the…

Described is an activity designed to make the concepts of experimentation, independent variables, and dependent variables easy to understand by using observable characteristics of several rods to illustrate these concepts. (DS)

Today's students experience a great deal of pressure to succeed in school. Since predictors of academic performance are widely used to assess student capabilities, the relationship between one such test, the California Psychological Inventory (CPI), and academic success are examined in this paper. The focus here is on the non-cognitive variables…

This article purports to present this Special Issue about Bullying and, at the same time, to introduce the phenomenon of bullying in order to facilitate readers an updated vision about the problem that will be worked from different perspectives by researchers from national and international scope. With this purpose, we present some controversial…

This paper analyzes how the composition of an institution's student body affects performance of that institution's students, examining how average student quality and dispersion in student quality within the student body affects individual students' future earnings. The first section examines two reasons why one's peers would affect future labor…

Validity of using time and behavior as predictors of learning was tested by collecting detailed visitor behavior and time expenditure while interacting with a participatory museum exhibit. Data from 12- and 13-year-olds (N=63: 32 males, 31 females) support the feasibility of using these predictors. Learning was measured using a 14-item test.…

Reviews dropout characteristics; identifies the components of an overall dropout prevention approach; and describes the role of legislation, school administration, and public-private collaboratives in developing dropout prevention strategies. Emphasizes the use of public and private resources to improve the opportunities of the disadvantaged. (FMW)

School motivation and achievement for an individual is the product of a complex set of interacting goals, goals which may be more or less significant to individuals from different cultural backgrounds. This paper describes a project which examines the nature of goals held by students from different cultural groups, the compatibility of these goals…

Addresses the validity of the Cognitive-Affective Response Test-Music by clarifying the theoretical assertions on which the construct validity of the instrument rests. Presents nine specific assertions and data from two studies. Concludes that the test is valid for college-bound high school students. (CFR)