This paper describes several issues college dropouts confront--including self-sustenance, autonomy, and escaping a fearful destiny--from a psychodynamic, social and developmental perspective. The implications for psychosocial theories of adult development are also discussed. (Author/LMO)

Discusses empirical problems in confining college student retention studies to stay-versus-go outcomes, reviewing data resources (exit surveys, transcript requests, withdrawn student surveys, state transfer student databases, and the National Student Clearinghouse's Enrollment Search Program), which can enhance understanding of first-year…

The purpose of this study was to compare the retention, progression, graduation, and attrition rates of first time freshman enrolled in four-year undergraduate programs at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR), and Pittsburg State University (PSU), Pittsburg, Kansas. The characteristics of both schools and the limitations of the study are presented…

How students' cultural backgrounds and the variation of these backgrounds in different educational units affect the phenomenon of dropout and change of career plans was studied with 39,831 Finnish college students from 1985-90. Students' tendency to drop out is connected to some degree to sociocultural background. (SLD)

We conducted an archival study of at-risk students who had "stopped out" of college for many reasons (academic dismissal, financial problems, personal problems, etc.) and who later were accepted to return to school. Approximately 27% of the accepted students chose not to return. Those who returned had higher grade point averages, had completed…

The college persistence of 1980 high school graduates and their subsequent attainment of bachelor's degrees are described with data taken from the Postsecondary Longitudinal Studies Program of the National Center for Education Statistics. Using the group of High School and Beyond 1980 graduates as a base, the persistence track transitions are…

A study was conducted at St. Louis (Missouri) Community College (SLCC) to assess the extent to which data on nonreturning students represent retention problems, the achievement of non-degree goals, or the process of temporarily stopping out. Study findings, based on a 27% response to a summer 1986 survey of 1,706 fall 1985 students who did not…

This guide addresses issues of learner persistence, motivation, and retention in adult basic education (ABE). Based on findings from the NCSALL Adult Student Persistence Study, participants engage in an examination of their own interests and experiences with learner motivation and retention and examine strategies of other practitioners. The goal…

Sweden's law giving all employees the right to study leave was introduced in 1974. This article is a report of qualitative interviews carried out with 19 manual workers from five trade unions in an industrial town. Respondents had attended a wide range of academic, vocational and trade union courses in recent years. Few had experienced any…

Nonreturning students are comprised of several student subpopulations including drop-outs, stop-outs, opt-outs, and transfer-outs. All too often these student groups are not differentiated in retention studies. The current study profiles these student subpopulations, each with varied reasons for discontinuing their studies, and examines the…

This study examines the attitudes and future plans of students who discontinued their studies in university certificate programs. These non-returning students were separated into three groups: opt-outs, stop-outs, and drop-outs. Two separate surveys were undertaken; one survey consisted of students enrolled in a certificate program offered by the…

What accounts for the differences in retention and graduation rates among large public colleges and universities that serve high numbers of low-income students? To answer this question, the Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education has conducted two studies to examine the institutional characteristics, practices, and policies…

Rather than studying the structural paths through which variables affect student persistence in education, this paper offers a reduced form model that focuses on precollege, demographic, and certain current achievement and financial aid variables. This approach does not specify structural paths, but it does have the advantage of requiring only…

This paper reviews current approaches for tracking student progress in postsecondary education, focusing on the context of emerging policy and information needs at the state, national and institutional levels and on the capabilities and limits of currently available information technology. The paper consists of six main sections. First the growing…

The withdrawal policies of many universities are based on the supposition that being able to withdraw without grade point repercussions will encourage students to return to the institution at a later date. This study focused on withdrawing students and examined the differences between those who re-enroll after a withdrawal and those who do not.…