An instructional plan to rescue at-risk students must be based on a curriculum intended to serve all students. The creation of a functional curriculum, the promotion of employability skills, and an emphasis on improving study skills are instructional patterns that seem to be effective in reducing the number of student dropouts. Two alternatives…

A supplemental reading intervention program was designed and implemented to increase the reading comprehension for at-risk students. Subjects, 11 fourth graders in two different classes, were chosen on the basis of below grade reading level as evidenced by both classroom performance and national achievement tests' score. The 10-week reading…

This module identifies the at-risk student and addresses strategies and effective programs for dealing with the at-risk population. The guide includes a list of definitions and uses a question-and-answer format to define at-risk students, discuss reasons for dropout, and provide information on early identification of risk, the effect of dropping…

Tri-County High School in Clarksburg, West Virginia, uses a nontraditional approach to educating actual and potential dropouts from schools in surrounding areas. The primary objective of the program is to enable students to develop adaptive behaviors and adequate skills to return to the regular classroom. The initial screening for admission into…

The research analyzed data sets covering 1981-1985 enrollments, transfers, and withdrawals at two large urban high schools (called Urbana and Northern) in eastern Massachusetts and personal interviews with selected school administrators in four school districts to investigate high dropout rates among Hispanics. Findings indicated that 30% of the…

Chief state school officers have committed themselves to seek the elimination of the nation's dropout problem by the turn of the century. Two reasons are given for this unusually strong statement. First is the human or moral issue that leaves millions of youth destined to a life of poverty if school cannot be successful in meeting their needs.…

A study was conducted to investigate the validity of Tinto's model of college withdrawal in a public four-year college and a private two-year institution. The model consists of six sets of variables in a causal sequence; i.e., background characteristics, initial goal and institutional commitment, academic and social integration, subsequent goal…

A study was conducted at William Rainey Harper College (WRHC) to obtain a profile of degree students who withdrew from courses at the college between 1979 and 1982. Study findings, based on forms completed by 10,148 of the 29,410 students who withdrew from courses during this period, included the following: (1) 11.5% of all course enrollments…

The relationship between academic advising and student attrition was examined at a private liberal arts college. A cohort analysis of students entering the college between 1971 and 1975 indicated that faculty members in the first year of their contracts had relatively more of their new student advisees subsequently withdraw than did the same…

Of the 53 Mexican-American full-time students at Cerritos College (Calif.) who completed questionnaires designed to determine their attitudes toward the institution and to detect possible reasons for their fellow Mexican-Americans' disinterest in attending college or dropping out of the institution, 90% reported that they themselves had not…

The Mink Scale is designed to differentiate between potential dropout and non-dropout students at the junior high school level. Items of the scale represent social, psychological, and educational factors established in previous dropout studies. A pilot study in five Appalachian counties compared scale responses for 189 (dropouts) former students…

School visits, school records, and direct contact were used to study dropouts and potential dropouts. Results indicated that the two groups were similar. Both had a high percentage with at least average ability; they were nonparticipants in school activities, tended not to like school, and felt that the schools were too large and had no interest…

The High School Redirection Program was designed to maintain 240 potential dropouts in an educational-vocational setting while assisting them to progress toward a high school diploma. Students were admitted from 13 high schools in Brooklyn and from Andrew Jackson in Queens. They were to follow a work-study program through the summer and regular…

The main stated purpose of this project is to send 100 Family Assistants who are familiar with the community into the homes of senior high school students who show serious problems in school attendance, adjustment, and/or achievement. The project is designed to provide a link between home and school for 15,000 such potential dropouts by having the…

Mexican American (MA) students remain at-risk for not completing high school. Since previous research has shown that parental involvement can positively influence MA students' academic achievement, the effects that parental involvement during students' eighth grade year has on students' school attendance in tenth grade are examined. Researchers…