The purpose of this study was to determine whether students enrolled in Secondary (9-12) alternative educational schools, i.e.--district schools vs. charter schools, demonstrate significant differences in achievement as measured by the 2019 A-F Letter Grade Accountability System, as well as to determine whether district and charter schools differ…

Using individual data from PIAAC and aggregate data on GDP and unemployment for the US, Europe, and Spain, we test how macroeconomic conditions experienced at age eighteen affect the following decisions in post-secondary and tertiary education: (1) enrollment; (2) dropping-out; (3) type of degree completed; (4) area of specialization; and (5)…

In this paper we present an Agent-based evaluation approach in a context of Multi-agent simulation learning systems. Our evaluation model is based on a two stage assessment approach: (1) a Distributed skill evaluation combining agents and fuzzy sets theory; and (2) a Negotiation based evaluation of students' performance during a training…

Adolescents in America are dropping out of school in alarming rates. In the school year 2009-2010, 514,238 adolescents dropped out of high school. While alternative education centers have been created to meet the needs of these individuals, they are not always successful as evidenced by a graduation rate below 5% in several alternative centers in…

Of the many important issues facing policy makers, educators, concerned citizens and parents throughout this country, one stands apart: the alarming number of teenagers who choose to drop out of school. While considerable research exists substantiating the statistics for this societal predicament, studies that seek to uncover the individual human…

English learners (ELs) in Florida face numerous challenges including low test scores, and high dropout rates, and are typically several years behind their peers when compared to other states. The purpose of this quantitative quasi-experimental ex-post-facto study was to compare the differences between ACCESS 2.0 scores of high school ELs in…

The "Illinois Charter School Biennial Report" for the 2019-20 and 2020-21 school years was originally published in January 2022 but was incomplete. The COVID-19 pandemic interrupted the normal administration and reporting of statewide student performance data during this time period. More specifically, ISBE received a statewide waiver of…

Aggressive students often struggle in multiple domains of their school functioning and are at increased risk for high school dropout. Research has identified a variety of warning flags which are strong predictors of high school dropout. While it is known that aggressive students exhibit many of these warning flags, there is little research which…

Equal access to higher education has for long been a political ambition, however, despite the expansion of the number of students now entering higher education it has not yet been achieved. The present special issue offers insights into the encounter between students from non-traditional backgrounds and higher education. Five individual studies…

In this paper we present an alternative typology for determining success and dropout in massive open online courses (MOOCs). This typology takes the perspectives of MOOC-takers into account and is based on the their intentions and subsequent behaviour. An explorative study using two MOOCs was carried out to test the applicability of the typology.…

Implications for student dropouts include fewer career options and lower earning potential. The purpose of this study was to investigate faculty perceptions of their roles in the student retention process at a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) in the Southeast United States. Guiding the phenomenological study was Lewin's theory of…

Anxiety is an identified risk for students and its rates are increasing amongst young people. While there are numerous articles available on anxiety and adolescents, little is known about the impact that rurality may have on anxiety in secondary school students. In light of this, a systematic literature review was undertaken to explore not only…

Context: In the Dutch educational system, different learning pathways to higher professional bachelor (or HBO) programmes have been created: the regular VET route, the general secondary education route, and continuing learning pathways (such as the Green Lyceum or GL) that combine characteristics of these two traditional routes and that are…

In this commentary, we use the occasion of the proliferation of dual enrollment to examine the discursive construction of difference between high school and college literacies, and its effects on teachers and students. This discursive divide has real, material consequences. It informs (and constrains) literacy practices and pedagogies, becomes a…

Improvement in education has been one of the strategies of the government of Chile to reduce economic inequality. To that end, it recently established a system of Second Opportunity Centers that enroll out-of-school youth who have not completed high school. The system is modeled on so-called alternative schools operating in Europe and the United…