This document, the first part of a two-part evaluation of the third-year implementation of New York City's 3-year Dropout Prevention Initiative (DPI), is the final evaluation report of implementation of the DPI middle school component, called the Dropout Prevention Program (DPP), conducted in 29 schools. Case-management services and some…

The problem of ill prepared college freshmen in remedial/developmental classes across the nation has significantly increased. At the same time, colleges and universities are increasingly concerned about college student retention. The study compared the belief structures of two groups: those enrolled in two remedial reading classes, and those…

This paper describes the first six months of activities and accomplishments of Commonwealth Futures, an initiative designed to provide services to at-risk youth in Massachusetts schools. Major activities are outlined chronologically, implementation problems and successes are briefly discussed, and projected future activities are listed. These…

South Carolina's first major dropout prevention initiative began two decades ago when leaders became more interested in the industrial development of the State. A 1966 study found that black youths were experiencing a dropout rate of 72%, while that of white youth was 48%. Statewide efforts taken in the early 1970's to alleviate this problem were…

This report outlines the major findings and recommendations of a study of drop-outs and "divergent youth" in Los Angeles public schools. The purposes of the research were to: identify the divergent youth population; study current practices and options which negatively impact the students' social and academic progress within the…

This report presents the findings and recommendations of an in-depth study of the Hispanic youth and the dropout syndrome in Michigan. Following an executive summary, the report is divided into three major sections. The first section describes the procedures, instruments, resources, findings, and conclusions of a statewide survey of Hispanic…

This preliminary report describes part of NKI-Skolen's planned contribution to a cooperative study on student non-start and early withdrawals in correspondence education, which was created by the Norwegian Association of Correspondence Schools. A project is explained which will examine the organization of the initial phases of a student's…

A study was conducted in Iowa to determine why adults eligible for adult basic education (ABE) frequently fail to participate. The study was conducted on a representative sample of 129 persons who had not completed high school, were aged 18 or older, and had not attended ABE classes, through open-ended questions refined into telephone interview…

Nine North Carolina programs in dropout prevention and for students at risk are described in this booklet. The programs were chosen for their comprehensiveness, serving kindergarten through grade 12. Even though there has been no formal validation of the programs presented, they are ones which appear to be using new and innovative solutions to…

This report assesses the first year of a school achievement program in Lowell, Massachusetts (Lowell Achievement Program, LAP). The program targeted seventh and eighth grade students who were at risk for dropping out of school. The main goals of the program were to identify these students and to stimulate them to participate in their own learning…

Undergraduate American Indians who enrolled at the University of North Dakota for academic years 1970-1979 were surveyed to determine factors contributing to attrition and retention. The final sample included 116 students, 71 dropouts and 45 graduates. A questionnaire and two information forms were designed to obtain information on biographical,…

Almost 19,000 Dade County Public School students--all the members of the 8th grade cohort in June 1980--were followed across four and a half years in a study of dropouts. Major findings include the following: (1) at the end of the follow-up period, 29.5% of the cohort had dropped out (19% of Asians, 26.4% of Whites, 29.3% of Hispanics, and 33.9%…

The findings of a task force study of New York City's implementation of a State dropout prevention law are provided in this report. An introduction describes briefly the historical background of the legislation, called the Attendance Improvement-Dropout Prevention program, which provided $28 million in supplemental funds to school districts with…

This paper evaluates the impact on student achievement made by eight New York City alternative high schools. The schools serve students with histories of poor attendance and low academic achievement, so an emphasis is placed, in the first section of this report, on findings which reveal students' credit accumulation and attendance patterns in…

Discusses the problems of foreign language requirements and foreign language student dropouts from an anthropological viewpoint. Proposes solutions which stress both the intrinsic and extrinsic values of learning a foreign language. (PM)