Montana's definition of a basic system of quality public elementary and secondary schools includes educational programs for at-risk students (20-9-309, MCA). State statute defines an at-risk student as a "student who is affected by environmental conditions that negatively impact the student's educational performance or threaten a student's…

The annual event dropout rate describes the proportion of students who leave school each year without completing a high school program. The event dropout rates for the school year 2008-2009 of 2.04% for grades 7 through 12th and 2.89% for grades 9 through 12th are consistent with the dropout rates for the past four years. The event completion rate…

For many years, the responsibility of educating Latino students has been delegated to Latino educators, bilingual teachers, or bilingual directors. Educators have not acknowledged it as a responsibility of each adult hired by the public school system. Although bilingual education has grown into an incredible educational movement, the same…

Researchers often identify degree effects by including degree attainment ("D") and years of schooling ("S") in a wage model, yet the source of independent variation in these measures is not well understood. We argue that "S" is negatively correlated with ability among degree-holders because the most able graduate the…

One of the serious problems associated with Indian school education has been high dropout rate. The reasons are many and varied but the major constraints are: non-availability of adequate number of competent and trained teachers in most of the schools and separate room for each class. To overcome such problems and increase equitable access to all,…

Background: Performance in high school science is a critical indicator of science literacy and regional competitiveness. Factors that influence science proficiency have been studied using national databases, but these do not answer all questions about variable relationships at the state level. School context factors and opportunities to learn…

During the past two decades, volition, defined as the ability to stay task-focused and ward off distractions, has become of special relevance for educational research and practice. It describes how decreased motivation or negative emotions can be dealt with by applying action control strategies. However, despite its potential, an important area of…

REL Southwest received a request to review the report "Avoidable Losses: High Stakes Accountability and the Dropout Crisis" to assess the soundness of the study methodology and the appropriateness of the conclusions drawn in the report. The review found that conclusions drawn in this study cannot be generalized and are significantly…

How well boys perform during the compulsory years of schooling is a significant concern with considerable research highlighting that boys experience problems at school in terms of learning, behaviour, achievement and participation when compared to girls. In particular, the retention of boys to Year 12 has been problematic. This article reports on…

Between 1998 and 2002 an estimated 250 mentoring programmes were started in Dutch secondary vocational education in order to decrease motivational problems and drop-out rates, especially among youngsters from ethnic minorities. Currently there are only two schools in secondary vocational education that include mentoring as part and parcel of their…

This paper demonstrates the analytical importance of employing output-based measures of school quality. The empirical analysis employs data collected in a longitudinal survey of primary school students in Egypt during 2 academic years, 1978-79 and 1979-80. School quality and grade completion are shown to be directly linked, leading to very…

This report explores the situation of at-risk students in small and rural schools in Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas, and compares this information to the at-risk student situation nationwide. In order to explore both the complexity and the degree of risk of dropping out in rural school settings, research questions were posed…

Project Return, a dual-component dropout recovery program under the administration of the Program for Pregnant and Parenting Adolescents began operating in 1990 and by 1993 had expanded to 19 sites. The Community Education Initiative operated in seven elementary schools and one satellite site to target elementary school parents of all ages who had…

In a yearlong project, Britain's Business and Technology Education Council (BTEC) investigated why some students leave their educational programs before achieving their certificates or diplomas. The project drew information on completion rates from the BTEC database. Views of BTEC centers' staff were canvassed through a national survey covering…

This resource handbook was designed to assist constituent school district personnel with the critical issues of student absenteeism and dropouts. From July 1982 through February 1983 and in May 1986, members of the Oakland County (Michigan) Attendance/Dropout Task Force met with educational and community agency personnel, graduating high school…