This report analyzes the Participation and Equity Program's two objectives of reducing significantly the number of Australian students prematurely leaving full-time education and of fostering more equal education, and discusses strategies for achieving these objectives. Following a statement by the Minister of Education and Youth Affairs and an…

The theme article of this issue, "Addressing Teenage Pregnancy and Parenthood" by Brenda Greene, explains that pregnant students and those who are already parents have the same legal rights to public education as do all other students. To meet this responsibility and to lower dropout rates, schools need to make educational opportunities available…

Student withdrawal from the University of Iowa was studied using an exit survey. Students' reasons for leaving the university, their future plans, and possible interventions that would have assisted the student to remain in school were assessed, along with the validity of the survey. Although there was only 62 percent agreement between the exit…

A study was conducted at William Rainey Harper College (WRHC) to determine why students stopped attending classes during fall 1979 without officially withdrawing. From a group of students who were reported to be not attending classes at midterm, 400 students were selected for the survey. The questionnaire solicited information about why students…

Models that have appeared in the student attrition literature in the past decade and behavioral models from the social sciences that may help explain the dropout process are examined, and an attempt is made to synthesize a causal model of student attrition. The models of Tinto, Spady, and Rootman in the area of student attrition, and models of…

A survey designed to predict freshman attrition was developed and tested at the University of Kansas. The 75-item survey, the Entering Freshman Survey, was administered to a uniform random sample of one-half of the freshmen entering the university in the fall 1979 semester or entering in the summer 1979 term and reenrolling in the fall. Based on…

Educational planners are concerned with the inflow of pupils in order to plan for adequate facilities and sufficient teachers. Statistics on repeaters, however, enable the determination of the flow of pupils through and from the educational system. Since repeaters cost educational systems double in the form of expenses for teachers and equipment,…

THE LANGUAGE ARTS LABORATORY WAS ESTABLISHED TO IMPROVE READING ABILITY AND OTHER LANGUAGE ARTS SKILLS AS AN AID IN THE PREVENTION OF DROPOUTS. THE LABORATORY WAS OPERATED ON A SUMMER SCHEDULE WITH A FLEXIBLE PROGRAM OF FROM 45 MINUTES TO 2 1/2 HOURS DAILY. ALL PUPILS WERE 14 YEARS OF AGE OR OLDER, AND EXPRESSED A DESIRE TO IMPROVE THEIR READING…

THE CURRICULUM WAS ESPECIALLY DESIGNED FOR POTENTIAL DROPOUTS. THE CURRICULUM BASE SHOULD RELATE TO THE REGULAR 10TH-GRADE CURRICULUM AND TO THE PUPIL'S ABILITY, TO THE END THAT HE MAY NOT BE SET APART FROM HIS PEER GROUP. THESE BOYS ARE EXTREMELY SENSITIVE. THEY HAVE SHORT ATTENTION SPANS AND APPEAR LAZY AND INDIFFERENT IN ORDER TO CONCEAL THEIR…

The Youth Incentive Entitlement Pilot Projects were designed to test whether guaranteed part-time jobs during the school year and full-time jobs in the summer would induce economically disadvantaged youths to remain in or return to school. The General Accounting Office (GAO) found that most worksites provided adequate experiences. Others, however,…

A cooperative effort between the Rockville Centre Free Union School District and the Far West Laboratory evaluated the implementation and outcomes of Greenhouse, an alternative high school program using the experience based career education (EBCE) curriculum. Evaluation criteria included four process objectives and the following student learning…

More than 95 percent of the 1,414 members of the American Association of School Administrators (AASA), responding to a survey about student attendance, cited one or more problems. The first five chapters report the survey findings and those of other studies and polls concerning attendance matters. One issue discussed is why students stay away from…

The primary research objectives of the 44-month project were to determine the extent to which members of experimental and control groups would differ, after training in academic achievement, vocational achievement, personal-social characteristics, and job placement and job success. The subjects were unemployed or underemployed school dropouts,…

The essays in this collection examine the school dropout from various points of view. Part I contains essays suggesting that the roots of the educational problems of the disadvantaged youth and the school dropout can be found in the poor state of contemporary public education; the essays in Part II present statistical data identifying the…

This study examined selected characteristics of 1,682 students who withdrew from Los Angeles City College during the spring semesters of 1973, 1974, 1975, and 1976, and compared them to the characteristics of the spring 1976 total day student population. About 68% of the withdrawees were of non-Caucasian background, compared with a non-Caucasian…