This article explores the development of learning identities among 51 young New Zealanders who left school with few or no qualifications. Most experienced a period of time after leaving school when they were not in education, employment or training (known as NEET). At the time of this research all had moved into a learning environment of some…

Despite the increase in their college enrollment, nontraditional students in U.S. postsecondary institutions are less likely to stay in college until they earn their degree. What could explain nontraditional student high attrition rates and overall success beyond what their demographic characteristics reveal? The purpose of this study was to…

This explanatory mixed-method study explored the dropout phenomenon from an ecological perspective identifying the school organizational (academics, activities, structure) and social relationship (teachers, peers) factors that most significantly influence students' decisions to leave school prior to graduation at a rural high school in south…

The purpose of this study was to understand why graduation rates of African American male students from four-year historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) within a six-year period were not on par with those of other races and ethnicities and, in particular, whether the reasons African American male students drop out rather than persist…

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (Department) created the grades 1-12 Early Warning Indicator System (EWIS) in response to district interest in the Early Warning Indicator Index (EWII) that the Department previously created for rising grade 9 students. Districts shared that the EWII data were helpful, but also…

Part 1 provides evidence, drawing on Statistics Canada reports, that Canadians without a high-school certificate are most at-risk of unemployment, low earnings, and poverty. Young adults are especially hard hit, with significantly higher unemployment rates and lower average earnings than high-school graduates. Part 2 cites research that shows the…

High dropout rates continue to be a silent epidemic afflicting the nation's schools. Although some measurable progress is being made in some school districts and states to raise high school graduation rates, and federal, state, and local policies and practices are changing to meet the dropout challenge, the nation's progress is too slow and the…

The District conducts a "cross-sectional" analysis of student dropouts annually; it examines dropout rates among students enrolled in various grades at one point in time. A "longitudinal" analysis, also conducted annually, tracks a group of students in the same grade or cohort over a period of several years. Each method…

Using national survey data and discrete-time logit modeling, this research seeks to understand whether student aid mediates the relationship between parental income and student dropout behavior. Our analysis confirms that there is a gap in dropout rates for low-income students compared with their upper income peers, and suggests that some types of…

This paper examines the issue of school dropout in six communities in the Savelugu-Nanton District in the Northern Region of Ghana. The study focused on 89 children (64 boys and 25 girls) aged 7-16 years, who had dropped out of school. A snowballing sampling method was employed to recruit participants to the study. Two researchers interviewed the…

School dropout is a problem that has distressing personal and societal consequences. Not surprising, students who drop out are typically not academically motivated. This phenomenological study examined the meanings that students construct about academic motivation while participating in a dropout prevention program that primarily uses counseling.…

There has been continued concern over the continued high dropout rate among Mexican origin youth. The purpose of this study is to understand how everyday experiences in school shape the content and meaning of Mexican origin students' social identities and how those social identities influence their academic trajectories over the transition to…

When the Commission on Access, Admissions and Success in Higher Education (subsequently referred to as the commission) convened in fall 2008, the educational landscape was facing a number of issues that the commission's members recognized as formidable challenges to those students who aspire to enroll and succeed in college. Summarizing the…

This report presents the deliberations of the Appalachia Regional Advisory Committee (Appalachia RAC), one of 10 RACs established under the Educational Technical Assistance Act of 2002 (20 U.S.C. sections 9601 et. seq.) to assess the educational needs of the region. The Committee's report outlines the educational needs across the four states of…

Monitoring the Future (MTF), now in its 42nd year, is a research program conducted at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research under a series of investigator-initiated, competing research grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse--one of the National Institutes of Health. The study comprises several ongoing series of…