This paper analyses how three European countries produce and use data within a specific educational policy field, that of school leaving and graduation. It compares how stakeholders in England, Finland and the Netherlands know what happens to the leavers from schools and universities. Through gathering evidence about the methodological…

The Kenyan education system has very limited re-entry options for learners who drop out before attaining secondary school certificate. It is very difficult to access training and or secure a job that requires at least secondary school education. This study examined the prospects of initiating Open and Distance e-Learning(ODeL) in re-entry…

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe the experience of "discontinued enrollment" for military veteran students at western Virginia community colleges. The theory guiding this study was Schlossberg's (1981) transition theory, as the military veteran students were in transition from the military to the community…

In this one-year qualitative study, the authors examined how border pedagogy is enacted by two Latino/a high school teachers in a border community in Southern California. Through classroom observations, the authors documented powerful student discussions that named complex borders (Giroux, 1992) that existed in their daily lives. We drew from…

According to the instructors and administrators at a local adult education (AE) program in Houston, Texas, retaining and graduating general education development (GED) students has been a constant challenge. Locating GED attendance barriers could enable AE programs to develop techniques that increase student retention and graduation rates. The…

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to document and analyze students' experiences with dropping out of high school, using a social capital framework. Examining the stories of high school dropouts provided valuable information related to the root causes of dropout behaviors. The context of this study was a high school in an urban school…

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between 8th grade student data and the level of student success at the end of the ninth grade year. The theoretical framework for this study was based on the Meleis (1986) Transition Theory and it was a mixed methodology research study that employed both qualitative and quantitative…

Recent synthesizing work on the student retention literature suggests two divergent discourses. The first is a discourse of assimilation which locates the problem in individual students' circumstances or abilities. This is challenged by an emerging discourse of adaptation. The new discourse focuses on higher education itself, proposing fundamental…

Background: Studies suggest that expert performance in sport is the result of long-term engagement in a highly specialized form of training termed deliberate practice. The relationship between accumulated deliberate practice and performance predicts that those who begin deliberate practice at a young age accumulate more practice hours over time…

To help explain why some young people move from recreational drug use to substance abuse, twelve in-depth interviews were conducted with young people who had experienced problematic substance use. The data were supplemented by statistical data on 111 young people. The researchers found a variety of "structural" factors that help explain…

A group of high school self-reported dropouts and a group of simulated high school dropouts were compared with graduates in their participation rates, efforts required for data collection, and the overall quality of their responses in the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972. The results indicate that dropouts are less…

State Education Agencies (SEAs) lead the charge for effective change, impact, and sustainability in the adoption and implementation of programs and practices that promote school completion. Steps taken by state and local education agencies to decrease dropout include (a) collection, analysis, and public reporting of "dropout" rates and related…

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES OF THIS PILOT PROJECT WERE TO (1) DEVELOP AND TEST INSTRUMENTS FOR GATHERING DATA RELEVANT TO QUANTITY AND TYPES OF ENTRY JOBS AVAILABLE IN A SELECTED COMMUNITY AND THE CONCOMITANT TALENTS DEMANDED BY BUSINESS FOR THESE JOBS, AND (2) DEVELOP AND TEST INSTRUMENTS FOR GATHERING DATA CONCERNING WORK ACTIVITIES OF RECENT DROPOUTS…

This report presents the findings of a research study conducted by Alvin Community College (ACC) as a subcontractor for Project FOLLOW-UP, which analyzed orientation and exit interview effects and their relationship to follow-up research on selected withdrawing and graduating students at ACC. Subjects of the study were 595 ACC students, 257 males…

Eighty-one tables were included in this study which examined teenage unemployment in a two-county rural area of North Carolina. Specifically, this report considered labor market experience of Negroes and Caucasians, personality variables, social and family characteristics, community factors, and educational and training opportunities. A structured…