This document was developed to (1) help clarify the various concepts of retention and attrition within a unifying conceptual framework, (2) synthesize the research on retention and attrition, and (3) examine the implications of the research for postsecondary administrators and researchers. Retention and attrition research pertains to both the…

Project Succeed is a program for helping failure- and dropout-oriented pupils to improve their school achievement. Attendance and assignment completion are the key behaviors for enhancing achievement. Behavior modification and communications procedures are used to bring about the desired changes. Treatment procedures include current assessment…

Several characteristics have been identified as permeating the lives of a great many dropouts. The potential dropout may be several years retarded in reading and mathematics, and is usually plagued by personal, social, and familial problems. Suggestions for stemming the alarming rate of school dropouts include community provision for treatment and…

The author, after reviewing briefly the research literature on dropouts, mentions the following shortcomings of such studies: (1) lack of ability to control for differences in the students' abilities; (2) incomplete and inadequate measures of socioeconomic background; (3) inability to control for qualitative differences in the schools attended;…

This study correlates the relationship between varying methods in student evaluation and its effect on student achievement and attrition. The sample studied consisted of 230 students enrolled in three separate semesters of General Biology 11A at Pasadena City College in 1972, 1973, and 1974. The earlier students were given longer exams over three…

Residential vocational school programs have been authorized in federal legislation, and a few have been established in spite of the lack of appropriated funds. The three acts in federal legislation of primary importance to residential schools are the Vocational Education Act of 1963, and 1968 Amendements and the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964.…

To prepare vocational-technical teachers to work with dropout-prone youths in laboratories within the school and to discover how successful a special vocational-technical program would be in assisting those students with special needs, 24 dropout-prone occupational exploration students were chosen to participate in a 6-week summer experimental…

Attention is focused on (1) the chronic failure to attract a larger percentage of the student population, especially male students, and (2) the perennially high rate of attrition in intermediate and advanced language courses in secondary schools. The merits of offering the teaching of contemporary foreign culture as an alternative to the…

Evaluations of 2 experimental programs developed by the St. Cloud, Minnesota, school system with funds from Title III, Elementary and Secondary Education Act are given in this report. Section 1 describes the Junior High Development Center, a program designed to help students who had very low basic education skills and showed signs of becoming…

The Job Upgrading Program helps school dropouts and potential dropouts either return to or adjust to the regular school program or become prepared for the world of work. Trainees are given the opportunity to take an abbreviated school program, receive highly individualized personal counseling, learn about the factors for achieving success in a…

This report, as the seventh in a series of Vocational Development Study monographs providing data for investigating the vocational development of 780 vocational and non-vocational ninth graders over a 10 year period, will prove useful for teachers, counselors, administrators, and other school personnel interested in the dropout problem at the…

This document explores the problem of educational wastage in elementary and secondary schools of United Nations member countries. Educational wastage exists in the (1) failure of a system to provide universal education, (2) failure to recruit children into the system, (3) failure to hold children within the system, (4) failure of the system to set…

Project Process, funded through the Elementary and Secondary Education Act Title VIII, is an integrated model within the existing school system concentrating on reducing the number of dropouts via an institutional change strategy. The basic goal of the project is to develop a flexible atmosphere where learning can take place. Within this goal is…

A sample of nonpersisting students is compared with persisting counterparts at Pepperdine University in terms of receipt of financial aid, grades awarded, etc. The findings suggest that financial aid is awarded to students with a higher probability of persisting to the end of the term. (LBH)

Results of a survey of British doctoral students not completing their graduate programs are reported. Students' reasons for dropping out include individual characteristics, personal problems and accidents, problems inherent in research projects, and poor supervision. Faculty attitudes and government policy are discussed. (MSE)