Latinos now constitute the largest minority group in the United States and the fastest growing segment of its school-age population. Yet they are the least educated of all major ethnic groups. Poverty, lack of access to high-quality preschool, low levels of parental education attainment, and hypersegregated schools all play a crucial role. The…

The use of data is a powerful tool to strengthen academic outcomes for all students--especially underserved students. Using data tells everyone whether certain groups of students have been disproportionately tracked into lower level classes or special education and whether or not they are proportionately represented in college-prep classes, honors…

Researchers have identified ninth grade as one of the most critical periods of time for intervention to prevent the loss of motivation, failing grades, and dropping out of school. This Information Capsule is concerned with the efficacy of ninth-grade centers or academies which isolate ninth-grade students into separate school buildings or in wings…

Setting high expectations, promoting academic excellence, encouraging students to set their sights on postsecondary education--administrators and teachers are quite familiar with these ideas and their use within the school setting. Although each of these ideas is important to what secondary education is and should be, it is somehow hard to imagine…

The high rates of dropping out and other engagement problems are significant concerns in the delivery of mental health and adjunct services to the families of at-risk children. Consequently, researchers have examined the correlates of attrition and have developed interventions to increase engagement and retention. However, the lack of a clear…

This monograph looks at patterns and prevalence of initial school enrolment, late entry, attainment promotion, and repetition in urban South Africa. The paper pays special attention to the particular gender nature of the patterns of school participation. The study analyses data generated in the genuine representative cohort study, Birth-to-Twenty…

During their three-year research project, the authors found that most practitioners, researchers, and policymakers in the education field were not familiar with Individual Development Accounts (IDAs) or the existing research on IDAs. Therefore, in this paper the authors compiled a list of some of the references that they found useful and that they…

The State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA) and the National Association of State Title I Directors (NASTID) drafted this paper to spark local discussions on the coordinated uses of funds to implement technology in the classroom. State and local Title I and Title IID directors can work together to ensure that these ideas are…

There are hundreds of studies that address "no significant difference" in the quality of online versus on-ground instruction, yet it is clearly the instructor who makes the difference. While there is considerable research on student retention practices for university recruitment and enrollment departments, there seems to be little written on…

In 2004, after an in-depth review of student achievement data for over 4,000 students, the administration of a school district in southern Minnesota identified the following challenges: (1) above-state-average number of special education students; (2) increasing number of English as Second Language (ESL) students; (3) increasing number of students…

Hundreds of prospective students engage the Owens Community College (OCC) three-step admission process each semester before voluntarily disengaging the institution. A study was conducted to assess student motivation to engage or disengage OCC based on factors related to student disposition, institutional motivation, and student situation, and to…

This book presents essays from educational reformers who examine efforts aimed at students at risk for failure in U.S. schools. It is divided into four parts. Part 1 considers the factors that place children at risk for educational failure. Part 2 describes the dangers for students of a system that fails to recognize and appreciate their…

The first of four issues in this volume consists of these articles: "The Fourth 'R'--Relating"; "On Baseball Cards and Literacy"; "On Literacy and Success"; "National Assessments: What They Can and Cannot Do"; and "In the Classroom: The Integrated Journal." It also contains two book reviews and a…

This report describes a cohort of secondary school students, from grades 7 through 12, who were enrolled in District of Columbia Public Schools in October 1993, but who did not return by the official membership count of the following school year. This group included dropouts, transfers, court-ordered withdrawals, deaths, and serious illnesses. The…

This practicum paper uses previously unavailable data from the Chicago Board of Education and the 1990 census to update a 1992 study of Native American dropouts in Chicago public schools. An overview of Chicago's American Indian population focuses on the Uptown area, a low income neighborhood in which one fifth of the city's Native Americans…