A questionnaire for students discontinuing their foreign language study is presented along with suggestions for its administration and use as a diagnostic tool for administrators. The brief form covers such factors as--(1) reasons for dropping the language, (2) availability of advanced courses, (3) notions of fluency, (4) student objectives, (5)…

Nationally, millions of students in grades 7-12 are at risk of dropping out of high school because of low literacy skills, poor attendance, and class failure. The absence of a college- and career-ready education for these students is a civil rights and social justice issue that the federal government cannot ignore. Unfortunately, many of these…

The annual event dropout rate describes the proportion of students who leave school each year without completing a high school program. The event dropout rates for the school year 2009-2010 of 1.89% for grades 7 through 12th and 2.69% for grades 9 through 12th are consistent with the dropout rates for the past four years. The event completion rate…

The United States has long been a model for accessible, affordable education, as exemplified by the country's public universities. And yet less than 60 percent of the students entering American universities today are graduating. Why is this happening, and what can be done? "Crossing the Finish Line" provides the most detailed exploration…

The purpose of this study was to explore the interactions between elementary school students and school personnel, family members, and community members to identify factors that contributed to South Texas Mexican descent students dropping out of school. A second purpose is to gain a deeper understanding of Mexican descent former high school…

The purpose of this study was to compare Alabama's rural school districts with its city, suburban, and town districts. Descriptive statistics were used for this population study, with effect sizes calculated using Cohen's d. Findings indicated Alabama's rural school districts serve slightly less affluent student populations, with a lower…

While politicians and other pundits may not agree on how to improve schools, there is agreement that many areas require attention from improving student achievement, to ensuring effective instruction. As school districts struggle with these and other complex issues, there is a growing demand for executive level leaders who have knowledge and…

Located differentially (and to its detriment) within a status hierarchy of knowledge, vocational education has been called upon to satisfy an increasing range of political and social needs, including meeting the needs of industry and government and catering for increasing pupil diversity. Faced with stubbornly immobile rates of school completion…

This study compared the high school academic experience of adolescents with and without childhood ADHD using data from the Pittsburgh ADHD Longitudinal Study (PALS). Participants were 326 males with childhood ADHD and 213 demographically similar males without ADHD who were recruited at the start of the follow-up study. Data were collected yearly…

Thirteen teenage editors of "Children's Express" investigated the dropout crisis by talking with teenagers who had quit school, with those who had returned to give it a second chance (back-to-schoolers), and with others who were fighting at all odds to hang in there (hangers-in). Hundreds of youth from five American cities--Newark, Boston, Kansas…

This report on the high proportion (25 percent) of California high school students who drop out is divided into five major sections. The first discusses the historical shifts in reform efforts to address, alternately, "relevance" and "excellence." It finds that high school students are now more bored and apathetic than…

This interim report examines the second-year implementation of dropout prevention programs in the 42 public schools that are part of the New York Dropout Prevention Initiative (NYDPI). Evaluators employed both qualitative and quantitative methodologies in gathering data on the 29 middle school and 13 high school program sites, and on the…

This study examined characteristics of programs in which students were enrolled to determine which activities were most effective in dealing with dropouts. The study attempted to validate program components that have previously been associated with retentive capacity. Seventy-six exemplary programs for dropouts were selected to participate in the…

This report describes the success of SWAS (School Within a School), an early dropout intervention program designed for average to above-average at-risk middle school students selected by the assistant principal. SWAS is a temporary self-contained institution within Davisville Middle School, North Kingstown, Rhode Island. As a prerequisite to…

AN ATTITUDE QUESTIONNAIRE PREVIOUSLY FOUND TO BE SUCCESSFUL IN IDENTIFYING POTENTIAL DROPOUTS WAS COMPLETED BY 450 PSYCHOLOGY STUDENTS AT MOUNT SAN ANTONIO COLLEGE. THOSE IDENTIFIED AS POTENTIAL DROPOUTS (N-186) WERE RANDOMLY ASSIGNED TO GROUPS OF 62 SUBJECTS. IN THREE 1-HOUR GROUP COUNSELING SESSIONS, ONE GROUP WAS SUBMITTED TO A DIRECTIVE…