The validity of Tinto's (1975) theory of student attrition, which asserts that withdrawal relates most directly to students' integration in the social and academic systems of an institution, is examined. This study supports that theory and also suggests that informal interaction with faculty plays an important role as well. (Editor/LBH)

The executive committee of a combined sixth-year Baccalaureate-M.S. degree program instituted the administration of exit interviews to gain systematic information about why students leave the program prematurely. The committee hoped to assess the school's admissions procedures, its educational policies, and its student support services. (MLW)

Investigated whether dropouts and other students having difficulty with physics could be identified by including mathematics reasoning items along with mathematics skill items on a 13-item mathematics pretest and by using records of past performance in conjunction with the pretest. Sample included 483 students in an introductory, noncalculus,…

This report presents the characteristics of students who failed in their first four-year college attempt, then transferred into community colleges, and subsequently moved on to a four-year college and succeeded. While the numbers who moved on through each stage dropped, they were large enough to identify recovery as a valuable community college…

California is experiencing a critical shortage of nurses -- a shortage that is likely to increase in the coming years (Coffman & Spetz, 1999). Although much of the nation is also experiencing similar shortages, California's shortage is more severe than that of any other state in the nation (Bureau of Health Professions, 2002). Most analyses of…

In 1990, social science programs in Quebec's colleges in Canada were revised to standardize core courses and objectives across individual courses. Subsequently, the province's Commission on the Evaluation of Collegiate Teaching undertook an evaluation of the revised program to determine its administration and effectiveness, as well as the…

Despite increased government investments in education, West Virginia continues to have one of the nation's highest high school dropout rates and is among the states with the highest unemployment rates. Human capital theory provides the conceptual basis for evaluating the relationship between investment in education and economic development. An…

Investigates changes of the student population with academic difficulty at the College of the Canyons. More specifically, this fall 2002 study investigates trends of the student population with academic difficulty over time, demographic changes of the population over time, and the impacts of an academic intervention workshop. Outlines the…

This study examined first-year attrition at a large, urban university in the United Kingdom, demonstrating the application of multilevel modeling to the issue of student attrition. A sample of 2,679 full-time, first-year students studying the 20 most common subject areas was identified. Students were divided into four groups depending on their…

Data from a national survey of high school students were examined to determine the effects of increased mathematics requirements on the kinds of mathematics students studied, dropout rates, achievement test score gains, and the association of socioeconomic status with test scores and dropping out. Results found little effect on probability of…

Building on previous data, researchers used West Virginia school district data to investigate the value of examining structurally determined opportunities and costs to explain high school students' dropping out. The study interpreted dropping out as a rational consequence of students' assessments of the opportunities and costs associated with…

This article offers a model of college student integration that emphasizes how students shape their college experiences by pursuing specific life tasks over others. A study of 311 first-year college students found that school persisters tended to focus more on academics during their first semester and social and personal needs during their second…

Explored the perceptions of African American male students who chose to leave a traditional academic setting for an alternative education program within the same setting. Data from students, parents, and teachers indicated that teachers and educational leaders failed to incorporate the relevancy of African American male students into the classroom…

Dropping out of school has been presented as a serious problem affecting gifted students, with some authors suggesting that 20% or more of dropouts could be gifted (e.g., Rimm, 1995; Robertson, 1991). Longitudinal data from North Carolina were used to investigate high-school dropout rates among gifted students (N = 7916) who had participated in a…

This paper constitutes a major part of the third phase of a longitudinal study in Swaziland investigating the short- and long-term effects of parental absence on primary children's school achievement. In 1998, 42 of the original sample of 80 students who entered grade one in 1990 were found remaining in the educational system but varied in their…