It is argued that the social control function of education and training is becoming increasingly explicit in England and France. Education and training can be viewed as a form of custody for young people, with enforced participation post 16 planned in the near future in England. Compulsory education for this age group is not currently planned in…

There has been no shortage of calls to improve teaching. Even the federal law, the No Child Left Behind Act, has mandated high quality teaching in the nation's public schools. But the question still remains "What makes an effective teacher, particularly of African-American males in an urban environment?" African-American males in…

In my first chapter, I explore the relationship between school size and student achievement where, conditional on observable educational inputs, school size is a proxy for factors that are difficult to measure directly ( e.g., school climate and organization). Using data from the NELS:88, I estimate a series of value-added education production…

Even as the number of students attending college has more than doubled in the past forty years, it is still the case that nearly half of all college students in the United States will not complete their degree within six years. It is clear that much remains to be done toward improving student success. For more than twenty years, Vincent Tinto's…

Approximately half of students at the community college level leave the institution before degree completion. Community college students are more likely than four-year students to be first-generation students, attend school part-time, be less prepared academically, work full-time, have family responsibilities, and have entered college later in…

The Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) administers programs that assist in educating children and youth with disabilities, provides funding for vocational rehabilitation (VR) services for youth and adults with disabilities and supports research to improve the lives of individuals with disabilities. OSERS established…

This study tells the story of the transformation of a substantial group of young people. Today they are exemplary civic leaders. A significant number of them hold public office or are church leaders, such as pastors. More than one third are professional educators or youth workers. Almost all are leaders in their families, workplaces, and…

A growing strategy in the world of educational reform is the use of "communities of practice" (CoP) as a tool for promoting sustainable systems change. There are three basic characteristics of a CoP that distinguish it from other types of communities: (1) the domain; (2) the community; and (3) the practice. A community of practice model…

First Generation undergraduate students from low-income households (FGLI students) continue to have substantially higher dropout rates than non first generation students or students from more affluent households despite numerous efforts over many decades to improve graduation rates among this group of students. The purpose of this research is to…

The National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE) organized and led a roundtable discussion of state special education directors (and, in a few cases, their staff members) on May 15, 2008. The subject was specifically selected because it had come to NASDSE's attention that many states were struggling with collecting data…

This study describes the results of a research evaluation of a school dropout prevention program and adolescents' self-reported perceptions of their motivations and role models. The program was a partnership between an urban university and an urban school district that was designed to prevent 9th grade students from dropping out of high school. It…

This case study explores how a community-based truancy prevention program mediates against absenteeism, truancy, and dropping out and positively transforms the lives of Black and Latina/Latino middle school youth. Findings suggest that community-school partnerships are critical in the quest to combat truancy and the alarming dropout rate among…

Alaska's Department of Education & Early Development shares a vision that all students can succeed in their education and work, shape meaningful lives for themselves, exemplify the best values of society, and be effective in improving the character and quality of the world about them. To support this mission, the Alaska State Board of…

The purpose of this article is to review a partnership between a teacher education department and a dropout prevention program. The partnership developed from a variety of communities' needs, no less of which was that of reconnecting marginalized youth at a local dropout prevention school with their community through cultural and civic…

Every school day, more than seven thousand students become dropouts. Annually, that adds up to about 1.3 million students who will not graduate from high school with their peers as scheduled. Lacking a high school diploma, these individuals will be far more likely than graduates to spend their lives periodically unemployed, on government…