Many Americans dream of completing a college degree, positively influencing wages and economic mobility. The number of students entering college or returning to college later in life is growing. Up to 75% of university enrollments are comprised of students in one or more of the following circumstances: 25 years old or older, attend school…

Latino boys and young men often carry the debt of violence into different spaces. This invisible trauma manifests into disruptive behaviors in schools. It is well documented that violence in urban communities and schools has received significant attention from researchers, but little attention has been paid to Latino male youth as individuals and…

The purpose of this study is to examine the effective leadership qualities and practices of principals from successful alternative school settings that are recognized as California Model Continuation High Schools (MCHS), based on Transformational Leadership Theory. The research questions that guided this study are the following: (1) Through the…

This paper invokes the voices of young people who had been separated from mainstream schooling because they were positioned as "disengaged" and "at risk of failing". The authors argue that streaming students out of schooling needs serious questioning as an escalating number of young people are framed as non-performers within a…

Alternative education provides different and powerful opportunities for learning. In this article, the author focuses on students who resist stereotypes that are produced and maintained by dominant powers and ideologies, and who share their knowledge and experiences with systemic marginalization. Drawing from classroom videos, qualitative…

RPA (Raising of Participation Age) legislation re-positioned all youth in England to participate in post-16 education and training, the ultimate aim to develop 'human capital'. However, how does RPA play out in practice with previously NEET (not in education, employment or training) and so-called disengaged youth engaged on a Level 1…

This study describes an intervention developed to implement several best transition practices with a high risk/high need population. In all, 116 students with disabilities from a charter school for dropouts participated. All students were interviewed at different points in time to track their progress as they completed the program. Records of…

Youth who have disengaged from and subsequently returned to school are qualitatively different from students with continual educational enrollment. In this study, we examined the validity for two measures: the Adult Hope Scale (AHS) and Persistence in Goal Striving (PGS) Scale, among two samples of reengaged students (i.e., students who have…

This case considers the leadership challenge facing district officials in a mid-sized urban-suburban school district receiving negative media coverage for the overrepresentation of poor, Black, and Latino males in its alternative high school, Second Chances Academy. Many of its students also qualify for special education and English learner…

This report focuses on the percentages of graduates and dropouts in the Miami-Dade County Public Schools when broken down by both ethnicity/race and gender. The percentages in outcome categories for this report are based on a four-year adjusted cohort model. For the purposes of this report, students at the end of their four-year high school…

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 objective of this paper is to better understand the factors that affect the chances of re-engaging early school leavers in education, with a particular focus on the importance of time out from school (duration dependence) and school-related factors. Using data from three cohorts of the Longitudinal Survey of Australian Youth and duration…

This three-phase, two-method qualitative study explored and identified policies, programs, and practices that school-site administrators perceived as most effective in reengaging at-risk students emotionally, behaviorally, and cognitively at 10 California Model Continuation High Schools (MCHS). Eccles' expectancy-value theoretical framework was…

More than 6 million young people in the United States are out of school, out of work, and, often it seems, out of luck. That's 17 percent of Americans between the ages of 16 and 24. This population includes dropouts and high school graduates, former foster children and juveniles in court custody; youth caring for siblings and teens cycling in and…

The objective of this study was to generate principal and teacher descriptions of what constitutes a teacher's "special fitness to perform" in a public urban continuation high school with a concentration of at-risk students. The sample included 6 continuation principals and 15 continuation teachers from a large urban school district in…