Research on dropouts at an urban, comprehensive New York City high school found a complex politics of "discharge" and low awareness on the part of students and parents of legal entitlement to education, which allowed 66 percent of a ninth grade cohort to dropout without comment or concern. (JB)

This study examined the individual and household determinants that affected the chances of Cambodian rural children being enrolled in or dropping out of school before completing grade four. Data were obtained from interviews with 159 children aged between 12 to 18 years and their families from two rural villages in Pursat province of Cambodia. The…

Several studies recently conducted by the Federal government and private organizations have produced new information about dropouts. Findings from these studies are summarized so that parents can have up-to-date information when talking to their children about dropping out. Urban and minority students are more likely to drop out of school. The gap…

In winter 1992, a survey was conducted by the Arrowhead Community College Region (Minnesota) to determine why nonreturning full-time students had failed to return to Arrowhead colleges. A questionnaire was mailed to all fall 1991 nonreturning students, followed by a second mailing two weeks later to all non-respondents. Of the 421 nonreturning…

This study was conducted to explore the economic and programmatic implications of school-year program attrition in secondary vocational programs in New Hampshire. The study included students who switched to other vocational programs as well as those who switched to a general academic or a college preparatory curriculum. Interviews were conducted,…

Student withdrawal from the University of Iowa was studied using an exit survey. Students' reasons for leaving the university, their future plans, and possible interventions that would have assisted the student to remain in school were assessed, along with the validity of the survey. Although there was only 62 percent agreement between the exit…

Models that have appeared in the student attrition literature in the past decade and behavioral models from the social sciences that may help explain the dropout process are examined, and an attempt is made to synthesize a causal model of student attrition. The models of Tinto, Spady, and Rootman in the area of student attrition, and models of…

A Minnesota study examined the secondary school dropout problem from the perspective of both the education system and the employment/training system. Findings from a pilot study involving 24 public secondary schools and the 24 counterpart Comprehensive Employment and Training Act agencies were compared with information from national and state…

A survey designed to predict freshman attrition was developed and tested at the University of Kansas. The 75-item survey, the Entering Freshman Survey, was administered to a uniform random sample of one-half of the freshmen entering the university in the fall 1979 semester or entering in the summer 1979 term and reenrolling in the fall. Based on…

Freshmen entering Indiana University in 1974 and leaving after two years but in good academic standing were surveyed in 1977. Those who were re-enrolled in an Indiana University System institution (57 students) were surveyed apart from the 303 students who had not re-enrolled. Academic and biographical information was gathered from school records.…

In an effort to determine variables related to Mexican American school dropouts' decisions to quit school and their orientations toward further educational attainment, personal interviews were conducted in 1967 with 74 Mexican American high school dropouts residing in 4 rural south Texas counties. The variables examined included (1) decision to…

As part of a larger, ongoing study, this research examined how Australian boys' early school leaving may be linked to boys' decision-making processes and regional discourses of masculinities. Interviews with 22 boys from three locations (provincial, metropolitan, and rural) in Queensland indicated that commonalities existed across the transcripts…

Study results supported earlier studies which found that individuals tend to attribute internal sources of causality to their successes and external sources of causality to their failures. Students who graduated from college attributed their success to internal factors, while students who did not graduate attributed their failure to external…

Urban secondary school students (n=1,064) were administered the Dean Alienation Scale to determine differences in feelings of alienation among African Americans, Caucasians, and Latinos, as well as sex and age differences. Higher levels of alienation reported by African Americans and Latinos and by males in all ethnic groups are discussed as a…

This study evaluated the effectiveness of an educational and treatment program for high school dropouts initiated by a private alternative school contracting with a graduate school of social work. The Cassata Program, a joint effort by the Cassata Learning Center and the University of Texas at Arlington, was designed to improve students' academic…