This 2006 or "28th Annual Report to Congress" follows the 2005 or "27th Annual Report to Congress" in sequence. Volume 1 focuses on the children and students being served under "IDEA" and provides profiles of individual states' special education environments. Volume 2 of the "2006 Annual Report to Congress"…

This study tracks initial effects of a philanthropic effort, while disentangling its effects from a major concurrently administrated school improvement initiative. Significant positive effects attributable to both efforts were noted in a middle school student sample. The full impact of the philanthropic and school improvement initiatives will…

The Center for Law and Education (CLE), a national advocacy organization with offices in Boston and Washington, D.C., strives to assist low-income students, parents, and advocates improve their public schools and work with their communities to fulfill every student's right to a high-quality education. In Massachusetts, CLE provides legal support…

"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) "The High Cost of High School Dropouts": New Alliance Brief Says Dropouts from the Class of 2009 Represent…

The monitoring and support of university freshmen is considered very important at many educational institutions. In this paper we describe the results of the educational data mining case study aimed at predicting the Electrical Engineering (EE) students drop out after the first semester of their studies or even before they enter the study program…

Based on the results of transition studies in the UK, Germany, USA and Canada, the virtues of analysing the structural contexts, institutional arrangements and the young peoples' action orientations are presented. In the first decade of the twenty-first century, school and the labour market have become more and more decoupled and transition routes…

Despite the overall efficacy of psychotherapy, dropouts are substantial, many clients do not benefit, therapists vary in effectiveness, and there may be a crisis of confidence among consumers. A research paradigm called "patient-focused research"--a method of enhancing outcome via continuous progress feedback--holds promise to address these…

Youth develop across multiple domains that are relevant to academic success. While schools focus primarily on cognitive development, many of the supports young people receive in other developmental areas come from community-based out-of-school programming. Stimulation of development in these additional key areas builds skills that support…

The authors report the findings of the 41st Annual Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll of the Public's Attitudes toward the Public Schools. The annual PDK/Gallup Poll of the Public's Attitudes toward the Public Schools is unique because it's not an advocacy poll, but rather a thoughtful study of Americans' current perceptions of their public schools. Each…

Little consideration has been given to the factors which motivate children to take up music tuition, or their reasons for giving up. In part, this is a reflection of the limited extent to which children have been consulted directly in relation to issues exclusively affecting them. This study considered opportunity and motivation for young people…

The goal of this study was to illustrate survival analysis with higher education data and gain insight into a limited set of factors that predict when students passed their first-year examination at a Dutch university. Study participants consisted of 565 first-year students in four departments. Data were collected on when students pass their…

In response to a thirty-year pattern of elevated high school dropout rates and a multi-generational disengagement from traditional school-based literacy practices among urban community members, the project on which this article reports asked a group of city students to document photographically what they perceived as the purposes of, impediments…

A holistic analysis of the dropout problem is presented in this collection of essays, which critically examines a variety of research traditions. The book examines the major groups within the dropout population, factors within schools that contribute to dropping out, and the larger social and economic context within which dropping out occurs.…

A study was conducted in Victoria, Australia, to examine the factors that influence Year 9 students' intentions to leave secondary school. Discriminant function analysis was used to determine the effects of family background variables, school characteristics, significant others, personal assessments, and attitudes on school-leaving intentions of…

This final report analyzes the research methods used in the identification of potential dropouts. This program was administered under Title I (ESEA, 1965) in the District of Columbia (see also ED 049 319). Three forms were used in the evaluation of Title I students identified as potential dropouts during the school year 1967-68: (1) Student…