Background and Purpose: Each school year, in the state of Texas, students unexpectedly change schools almost 450,000 times. In the Houston region alone, students change schools more than 60,000 times. These school changes are not random, tend to be geographically contained though not within school districts, and carry significant ramifications in…

Earning a high school diploma is a milestone that has been linked to many later life outcomes, from employment to incarceration to physical health, and impacts society as a whole through tax revenues and government spending. Yet, youth leaving school prior to obtaining a diploma remains a challenge nationwide, particularly in large cities. Given…

This dissertation is comprised of three essays on the economics of education. The first and third chapters examine marijuana legalization and its effects on students, while the second chapter examines the impact of pension incentives on teacher quality. The first chapter examines the extent to which there are negative spillovers of recreational…

Single parents are enrolling in postsecondary institutions at an increasing rate; however, their graduation rate remains low. Single-parent, community college students who drop out tend to do so due to the various barriers they encounter. Research concerning single parents and their viewpoints of community colleges' student services is lacking.…

The continual attempts by higher education to create more learning opportunities for students through distance learning programs tend to focus on increasing enrollment and providing an opportunity for students to obtain a degree in higher education. This study aimed to bring to light any significant differences when comparing student performance,…

The digital divide and digital equity have long been a concern for educators, and public schools. In 2020 when the COVID-19 global pandemic swept across the country, public schools closed for in person classes and moved to a new paradigm of online only classes, issues of digital equity and the digital divide became a critical focus for families…

Even though distance education from the home environment has seemed comfortable and economic for students with disability in formal higher education during the pandemic, insufficiency in their academic self-efficacy, satisfaction and an increasing tendency to drop out were observed. This quantitative research is based on development of the scales…

Purpose: Using longitudinal data of children in Nepal, this study examines the relationships between dropouts, grade repetition and the causes of dropout, such as entrance age, to derive concrete recommendations to improve the basic education completion rates in Nepal, one of the targets of Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4).…

Enrollment in online higher education (OHE) programs has witnessed a substantial increase, owing to the benefits and added value it offers students. However, one of the main challenges in this educational modality is attrition. While research on attrition in online settings is plentiful, studies on student satisfaction with higher education…

Extracurricular activities have been known to provide students with learning opportunities not always provided in other traditional learning environments such as communication, leadership, problem-solving skills, and emotional awareness, and have shown benefits in improving student engagement and school attendance. These learning opportunities…

Background: Teen pregnancy is associated with increased risk of school dropout, employment challenges and long-term poverty; these risks are exacerbated for foster youth who are at elevated risk for teen pregnancy. Sex education and relationship education can facilitate the development of attitudes and skills associated with behaviors that reduce…

Many students who experience extended school absences or dropout episodes reengage with school and complete a diploma or alternative credential within 4 years of beginning ninth grade. However, these students have not been extensively studied, and the factors that affect reengagement decisions are not well understood. Using an educational…

Aim/Purpose: One of the main objectives of higher education institutions is to provide a high-quality education to their students and reduce dropout rates. This can be achieved by predicting students' academic achievement early using Educational Data Mining (EDM). This study aims to predict students' final grades and identify honorary students at…

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the pre-enrollment attributes of first-year students at Computer Science BSc programs of the University of Miskolc, Hungary in order to find those that mostly contribute to failure on the Programming Basics first-semester course and, consequently to dropout. Our aim is to detect at-risk students early,…

In this work, we investigate whether grants improve the academic outcomes of students from socio-economically disadvantaged families and thereby reduce inequalities of educational opportunities. We focus on Italy, which is characterized by high dropout rates, prolonged duration of higher education studies and considerable social inequalities in…