Ranken Technical College, a small, private, non-profit, two-year technical college in St. Louis, developed a plan whereby at-risk students would be flagged, their needs assessed, and programs put into place to meet those needs. The desired result was a higher retention rate, especially among minorities. The following components were found to be…

This monograph provides home economics educators with a resource that contains an overview of youth at risk, reviews motivation theory as a basis for educational decision making, and provides practical teaching suggestions that will help home economics teachers reach and teach these students. The guide is organized in five sections. Following a…

This paper attempts to refute current emphases on supposedly increased numbers of "students at risk." It is claimed that such terminology usually includes students who drop out, who become teenage mothers, or who are illiterate. Data are presented in tabular form demonstrating that all three of these "risk behaviors" are at their lowest in…

In spring 1993, Charles County Community College (CCCC) in Maryland conducted a telephone survey of students who had been enrolled at the college the previous fall but did not return for the spring semester. A total of 1,655 students were identified as non-returning by the third week of classes in spring 1993, representing 29% of the fall 1992…

A study was conducted at William Rainey Harper College (WRHC) in Illinois to develop a profile of students who withdrew from courses between summer 1990 and spring 1992. For the 2-year period studied, each degree credit student who officially withdrew from a course was asked to complete a survey form, indicating withdrawal status, whether a…

This evaluation of the 1989-90 Home-School-Community Agent (HSCA) Project in Columbus (Ohio) found mixed success. The role of the HSCA was to help disruptive pupils make positive adjustments to those elements in their lives that interfered with their success in school. Nineteen HSCAs were each assigned 60 "disruptive" students drawn from…

The One-Room-Drop-In-School (ORDIS) emerged as one of Tennessee's dropout prevention program innovations. A pilot ORDIS was started in Nashville (Tennessee), in a high density housing project where concentrations of poverty and illiteracy usually exist. A five-bedroom apartment in the housing project was set up as a school. A certified teacher,…

The exemplary high school dropout prevention programs funded by the federal Vocational Education Cooperative Demonstration Program that are profiled in this document reveal several elements necessary for success in an enhanced vocational education program: (1) highly qualified and emotionally stable staff; (2) curriculum and instruction that…

The first of two papers in this publication is "Teaching by Satellite in a European Virtual Classroom" (Desmond Keegan). It describes the first accredited university course by satellite, a 1-year certificate course in safety and health at work offered by the University College Dublin. It discusses the enrollment of 219 students at 10…

The dropout problem in the nation, in the Council of the Great City Schools (GCS) school districts, and in the central cities is reviewed. Annual, single-year, four-year, and status dropout rates are examined. During the decade from 1982 to 1992, the gap in dropout rate between Whites and other ethnic groups has narrowed. The majority of the GCS…

The school-year and annual dropout counts for high schools in the Austin (Texas) Independent School District are summarized for the past 7 years, 1983-84 through 1989-90, and for grades 7 and 8 for the past 6 years. Also reported are the current status of entering ninth graders of 1983-84 through 1989-90, and of the entering seventh graders of…

The Austin (Texas) Independent School District has been researching the dropout issue for several years and has studied the implementation of the mandated Texas at-risk criteria to identify at-risk students. Having identified students at risk, the district followed them for 4 years (1987-88 to 1990-91) to determine the accuracy of the initial…

This study examines patterns of student attrition and retention in the Omaha (Nebraska) Public Schools (OPS). The following dropout characteristics were studied: (1) low socioeconomic status (SES); (2) minority group membership; (3) low achievement test scores; (4) low academic grades; (5) enrollment in a nonacademic (vocational or general) high…

This manual was developed to provide training for professional and paraprofessional staff to support at-risk youth. The manual is organized in 14 sections that include the following topics: educational, cultural, and/or social problems; the identification process; the referral process; counseling strategies and techniques; alternative…

Volume 6, the sixth of eight publications developed by the Intercultural Development Research Association as part of the "Texas School Dropout Survey Project," focuses on program responses to the dropout problem. It describes a survey conducted to identify and evaluate in-school and out-of-school programs designed to address the dropout…