This year's study is the 35th in a series of annual reports on trends in dropout and attrition rates in Texas public schools. The 2019-20 study builds on a series of studies by the Intercultural Development Research Association (IDRA) that track the number and percent of students in Texas who are lost from public school enrollment prior to…

Attrition from Canadian graduate programs is a point of concern on a societal, institutional, and individual level. To improve retention in graduate school, a better understanding of what leads to withdrawal needs to be reached. This paper uses logistic regression and discrete-time survival analysis with time-varying covariates to analyze data…

The STEM fields, otherwise known as the Sciences, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics areas, have become the focus of multiple studies and funding initiatives in recent years. Despite these efforts, lingering concerns exist about who enters, who is retained, and who completes the doctorate in STEM fields. This study utilizes discrete-time…

Using longitudinal administrative data from a large elite research university, this paper analyzes the role of peers and grades in determining major persistence in the life and physical sciences. In the physical sciences, analyses using within-course, across-time variation show that ex-ante measures of peer quality in a student's introductory…

The association between marijuana use and depressive symptoms was examined longitudinally in a sample of 622 African American youth, interviewed on six occasions, using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM). We considered whether depressive symptoms predicted changes in marijuana use and vice versa from high school through the transition into young…

Data from the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 indicate that women are more likely to withdraw only in two year colleges and that whites are more likely to withdraw than blacks. High school program, college grades, and educational aspiration are significantly related to withdrawal, but receipt of financial aid is not.…

A longitudinal study involving 85 winners of the Westinghouse Science Talent Search investigated variables that led to their retention or attrition in science. Results found certain family variables, appeal of other domains of study, and shrinking grant money and academic positions contributed to attrition. The influence of mentors is discussed.…

Multiple group discriminant analysis was employed to determine the utility of preenrollment traits and academic performance in identifying freshman students who persisted, stopped out, or withdrew early. After first-quarter academic performance, relatively clear distinctions can be made between students who persist and those who do not.…

This study examined the predictive factors of persistence for African American students at historically black colleges and universities (HBCU) and at predominantly white institutions, and is based on John Bean's (1982) synthetic model, which incorporates background, organizational, environmental, attitudinal, and outcome variables. The hypotheses…

Measures of academic job involvement, verbal ability, academic performance, and satisfaction with courses and with college in general, obtained for 155 students during the freshman year, were correlated with attrition on a two-year followup. Freshman grade point average and satisfaction with college in general were two significant predictors of…

A causal model based on Tinto's work was employed to explain the long-term persistence/withdrawal of students who began their postsecondary education in two-year institutions. Persistence was defined as completing the bachelor's degree within a 9-year period, or actively working toward the degree as of 1980. The model was estimated on a national…

In an effort to improve retention and accountability at Patrick Henry Community College (PHCC), in Virginia, a study was undertaken to track first-time student cohorts entering in fall 1988 through fall 1992 and gather data on student demographics and outcomes. The study examined data for 721 students entering in fall 1988, 761 in fall 1989, 824…

A statistical analysis of the predictive potential of academic and nonacademic student characteristics in an architecture school provides a model for other institutions to make their admissions processes and programs for retention more effective. The study was of 10 freshman architecture classes at the University of Kansas. (MSE)

This report describes the results of a longitudinal study of 30 Australian children with behavior disorders who were placed in 15 regular primary schools in Victoria and New South Wales. All of these schools were in the process of integrating children with behavior disorders. In each school in the initial study, the principal, classroom teacher,…

Two reports of student nonpersistence at the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP), are provided, taken from the Maryland Longitudinal Study. The first study, which examined four questions regarding students who become nonpersisters, found the following: nonpersisters had poor high school and first-semester study habits, were apt to have…