Although schools can do little to help youth from desperately poor, violent, or drug-addicted families, they can educate other at-risk youngsters who are discouraged or defeated learners. Schools can raise these kids' self-esteem by bestowing serious work assignments, (not "warm fuzzies"), solitary learning space, or external rewards for everyday…

Basic skills deficiencies are intense, and widespread. They contribute to social problems such as poverty, unemployment, dependency, illegitimacy, and crime. Unless people acquire the basic competencies required for success, these problems will continue to increase. Educational attainment must be encouraged nationwide. (VM)

Describes special vocational education programs in New York City and San Francisco for adult immigrants. The programs offer English as a second language, office skills, survival training, counseling, and job search skills. (JOW)

This study solicited opinions from 400 students who had either graduated from or left degree programs at New River Community College. The respondents agreed with the importance of required general education courses. Communications, critical thinking, vocational adjustment, human relations, and mathematics skills were rated useful for occupational…

Reports results from a survey of 70 adults who had withdrawn from the Open Foundation Course, a matriculation course for adults at the University of Newcastle. Reasons for dropping the course included a change in circumstances, low motivation, and conflict of interest. Most respondents felt they had gained something from participating in the…

The Freshman Advising Program at Illinois Benedictine College is described. The program was developed to improve the quality of academic advising and to lower the student attrition rate. (MLW)

Examined the relationship between persistence and perceptions of social support from members of the campus community and from family members for Black (N=53) and White (N=140) college freshmen. Found Black and White freshmen's perceptions of social support and dropout intentions were significant predictors of persistence, but crucial sources of…

Characterizes 90 percent of the native students in Canada's Northwest Territory as dropouts. Offers the Community Occupational Program as an alternative to secondary school graduation. Describes program goals and benefits. (ABB)

Describes a program that reaches out to displaced homemakers and gives them the support they need to enter nontraditional training and jobs. Discusses program content, funding, and enrollment; an introductory displaced homemaker class; recruitment methods; career exploration; support services; dropout prevention methods; job placement; and…

Pascarella and Terenzini developed five factorially derived institutional integration scales to operationalize Tinto's conceptual model of college student withdrawal. Some psychometric characteristics of these scales were estimated for disadvantaged students at an urban commuter college. The scales showed improved characteristics after item…

The San Francisco Renaissance is a job training program for unemployed innercity youths. The illiteracy rates of youths applying to the program are high so a literacy class was developed to raise the students' reading and math skills to the eighth- and ninth-grade levels required by the technical job market for which they are being trained. (MD)

Classifies teachers who leave teaching as the "honest departers," the "overworked group," and the "confused and unhappy." Cites principal reasons for teacher attrition as insufficient social and economic rewards, isolation in the classroom, unrealistic training, society's unrealistic expectations, and teacher vulnerability to criticism. (CJM)

A case study of a model program for recalcitrant young dropouts provides guidelines for serving successfully this high-need population. (Author)

Discusses a study that found that participation in a structured vocational program and in special education programs that keep students in school until they graduate has a positive impact on handicapped students and dropouts once they leave school and enter the job market. (JOW)

To boost the enrollment for the spring 1983 semester, Pan American University started a project to find unenrolled applicants and former students. Academic deans sent these students a letter, a questionnaire, a partially completed application for re-admission, and a re-addressed, stamped envelope. (MLW)