Background: Education plays a pivotal role in empowering individuals with the knowledge and skills needed for careers, economic progress, and societal engagement. Dropping out of school before achieving a qualification undermines these opportunities and has an impact on individuals and society (Audit Commission, 2010; OECD, 2023). International…

In light of the fact that students at risk of dropping out of school have become the focus of national attention, this paper examines one alternative program designed to work with a population considered to be at very high risk for dropping out. The population served by the School-Community Guidance Center (SCGC) in the Austin (Texas) Independent…

This mammoth document consists of a random series of project reports and proposals from the Puerto Rican Department of Education. Each report is a distinct entity, and lists the school districts involved in the project under discussion. The papers all focus on those aspects of strategies and services which will help students to remain in school,…

The PAISC program provides support to schools enabling them to successfully implement discipline and early intervention dropout prevention programs. Selected characteristics of 15 sites in which the PAISC program has been implemented are described. This report details the way in which staff divided its time between implementing the components that…

To evaluate the effectiveness of a commuter job corps program, evaluation data were obtained from participants, instructors, administrators, and a control group. Designed specifically for high school dropouts and run in conjunction with the local school districts, this program was evaluated in terms of (1) student retention, (2) return-to-school…

This report describes an evaluation of Project Success, a dropout prevention program at Crockett High School in Austin (Texas). The class centered program provided incentives for improved educational performance and attendance of at-risk ninth-grade students in the 1990-91 school year. The project served 103 students over the fall 1990 and spring…

This document reports on the second year of operation of Project ARJO: Academic Recovery through Job Opportunity, a program developed by Sandy Union High School District #2 in Sandy, Oregon under a Title VI Excellence in Education grant from the U.S. Department of Education. The primary objective of Project ARJO is the academic recovery of…

In 1979 a program was initiated at the Georges Valley High School in Thomaston, Maine, to identify high risk students who would be likely to drop out of high school and then to design and implement a program for ninth grade students that would motivate them to stay in school. A subsequent review of the impact of the program on its participants…

The Valued Youth Partnership of San Antonio (VYP) has been dramatically successful in improving educational opportunities for the highest risk students. In school districts with dropout rates of over 40%, the highest risk students over a 4-year period averaged dropout rates of 2.5%. This booklet provides program results for VYP for the period 1984…

"A Vision for the Future," a comprehensive long-range plan to develop, implement, and evaluate a multipart program to reduce the dropout rate in the Charleston, South Carolina, school district, is described in this report. Goals and objectives are presented, followed by a description of 18 intervention strategies. Components of the plan…

Educating disadvantaged students will demand a national commitment to increasing the resources devoted to the task, restructuring the schools in which the disadvantaged are educated, and conducting research needed to make those schools more effective. Educationally disadvantaged students have been exposed to insufficient educational experiences in…

A 3.5-year study of dropout prevention programs in New York City public schools shows that current programs have been effective in increasing professional and public awareness of the dropout problem and providing needed support to some students. However, the categorical approach of most programs is inadequate, providing special services to only a…

This study used the cohort method to determine the status of students who participated in the high school Attendance Improvement Dropout Prevention (AIDP) Program in 1985-86, one year later as of June 30, 1987. Among the findings are the following: (1) 41.3 percent had dropped out of school; (2) 7.2 percent had graduated or passed a General…

This paper describes a methodology for the evaluation of dropout prevention programs, for calculating dropout rates, and for comparing alternative programs equitably. A first step involves developing a hierarchy of criteria for evaluating programs. These criteria are used to obtain dropout risk probability for individuals and groups and types of…

This guide is intended to provide teachers and administrators, especially in West Virginia, with information about high school dropouts, their characteristics, and ways to retain potential dropouts in high school. A pretest and answer key precede the text of the report. The first section presents an overview of the dropout problem and its…