Lowering the student dropout rate in America is one of the most significant challenges facing educators today. This book calls attention to this problem, and offers hope and suggestions on how to resolve it using effective strategies taken from research and personal observations gleaned from successful dropout prevention programs in school…

This third edition, now published by Pine Forge Press, features original readings and article excerpts by leaders in the area of Sociology of Education. With a wide array of theoretical perspectives, a broad range of respected sources, and inclusion of both classic and contemporary studies, this comprehensive, integrated text addresses key issues…

The essential subject matter of this book is the college dropout problem. In a study of persisting and nonpersisting students, home and college environments were considered as well as personal and academic characteristics to determine if any of these areas were related significantly to the student's decision to leave or remain in college. The…

Thirteen teenage editors of "Children's Express" investigated the dropout crisis by talking with teenagers who had quit school, with those who had returned to give it a second chance (back-to-schoolers), and with others who were fighting at all odds to hang in there (hangers-in). Hundreds of youth from five American cities--Newark, Boston, Kansas…

The dimensions and consequences of college student attrition and features of institutional action to deal with attrition are discussed. Patterns of student departure from individual colleges as opposed to permanent college withdrawal are addressed. After synthesizing the research on multiple causes of student leaving, a theory of student departure…

The everyday lives and the cultural identities of early school-leavers in the Republic of Ireland are explored, drawing up a political practice, a cultural politics, that relates to the position of early school-leavers. This practice is theorized within a poststructuralist and post-Marxist framework. Part 1 presents conversations with urban early…

The basis for this report is a large research project undertaken by The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) for the Ontario Ministry of Education from July 1974 through December 1975. It also uses evidence from two earlier small studies of OISE, from the academic years 1972-73 and 1973-74. The project was designed to be the main…

Part One of this book discusses the curricular cases, curricular changes, needed changes in instructional delivery, and the visible and invisible dropout. Part Two provides new data on delinquency and dropouts, alternative centers for learning, noncurricular changes, immigrant and seasonal farm workers, and current prevention practices. This book…

One of the six national goals in the United States is to achieve a 90 percent graduation rate by the year 2000. In the last 50 years, high school graduation has become the norm. Concurrent with the new expectation of high school graduation came the dominance of the word "dropout" to describe those without diplomas. Many Americans view…

The Astin study of dropouts is a national survey covering a large population; it is a longitudinal study and is related to action programs. This paper highlights some of the major aspects of the study, draws implications that have special significance to the black colleges, and suggests areas for further research that would appear to be of…

Approaches to sampling are suggested for use by states in reporting more effectively on the completers and leavers in vocational education programs. Following an introductory chapter, six others outline the proposed plan for followup studies. Chapter 2, a task outline for a proposed ongoing sampling survey, divides the first three of the followup…

This volume describes a test of a theoretical explanation of delinquency and dropout in terms of four variables: (1) aspiration-opportunity disjunction, (2) internal-external attribution of blame, (3) alienation or normlessness, and (4) access and exposure to delinquent groups. In this research a type of cluster sample was used in which the basic…

The study reported concentrated on school leavers in Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania) who returned (dropbacks) to Job Corps Programs over an 8-year period. Interviews with 100 dropbacks explored who left school, why they left school, what caused them to come back, and the kinds of interventions that might succeed with other students. Part 1 provides a…

This document presents 700 key tables from the thousands of tabulations made by Government agencies, private surveys, and extensive research projects, comments on their significance to the history and economy of higher education, and provides guidance to their sources. The 28 chapters cover questions relating to undergraduate and graduate student…

Student departure is a long-standing problem to colleges and universities. Approximately 45 percent of students enrolled in two-year colleges depart during their first year, and approximately one out of four students departs from a four-year college or university. The authors advance a serious revision of Tinto's popular interactionalist theory to…