Studied the effects of the school-based Early Childhood Centers for Children of Teen Parents Program. Records for 81 program participants were compared with those of 89 young mothers who did not participate. Participants had better school attendance and lower overall risk than nonparticipants and were more likely to graduate from high school. (SLD)

In this brief column, the author relates the story of how meeting a boy named Montez in a 10th-grade World Literature class that he was observing during his student-teaching days encouraged him to remain in the profession. He claims that he learned from Montez what no teacher education program or textbook on pedagogy or language arts content could…

Elementary, middle school, and high school principals have a powerful impact on the schools in their charge. These lead administrators mold the atmosphere of a school and, in turn, the feelings of the teachers who work in it. The current teacher shortage combined with the demands of standards-based education has made retaining new teachers a…

This essay is designed to engage academic discipline in a conversation about the utility and practices associated with providing communication coursework online, particularly general education, communication skills courses. The author has framed the conversation in terms of student success, retention, and degree completion. He outlines three…

In this paper we will examine the persistence of "misconceptions." We used data from a longitudinal study of personal ideas in 24 students' thinking about ecological processes. The results show students often speaking about personal experiences dating from an early age, to which they had also referred in similar interviews conducted years before.…

Those who are entrusted with the economic and social future of the U.S. should be unnerved with what is happening and not happening in the essential areas of teacher preparation, recruitment, and retention. Mindful of the facts, the College Board's Center for Innovative Thought, whose members include academic and business leaders, assessed the…

A pivotal point for students is the transition from middle school to high school. Students will decide during the first few weeks of their freshman year if they intend to continue their high school education (Hertzog & Morgan, 1999). This article provides the reader with the research surrounding this transition year, programs and practices…

Because ninth grade is such a tough year for many students, some school districts have created special academies or other programs to provide special attention to students in the first year of high school. Studies show that ninth-graders have the most discipline incidents and retentions, and are most likely to drop out. In this paper, the author…

In this article, the author discusses the persistence of President Bush on the tradition of America's two previous presidents by naming the White House Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans, which aims to reduce the Hispanic high school dropout rate--now to the point where one in three Latinos fails to complete high school,…

This article considers the issues of attendance and non-attendance, the latter of which has been recently linked with "behaviour" in a range of policy initiatives in England. John Dwyfor Davies and John Lee review some of the existing material on non-attendance and then draw on data they have collected in one large English city. The…

This research is part of a larger study of the factors affecting part-time adult learners. It covers a literature review dealing with three areas of factors that might affect adult learners: (i) social and environmental, (ii) traumatic and (iii) intrinsic factors. This produced 36 factors and was followed by a qualitative study to validate and…

The continued growth of the Latino college-going population challenges college and university pesonnel to become better informed on the issues that affect persistence of this diverse group of students. This article reviews the current understanding of those personal, environmental, involvement, and socio-cultural factors influencing student…

This article compares the experiences of small groups of newly qualified teachers before and after the introduction of statutory induction in England in 1999. It examines how far some of the beneficial outcomes of a structured induction programme advocated by Glickman and Bay (1990) have been evidenced by the experiences of the post-induction…

This article draws from research conducted with poor and working-class youth in California attending schools that suffer from structural disrepair, high rates of unqualified teachers, high teacher turnover rates, and inadequate books and instructional materials. Arguing that such schools accomplish more than simple reproduction of class and…

This article discusses Brother to Brother, a program designed to help African-American men stay in college and graduate. St. Petersburg College formed this program seven years ago as a means not only of recruiting male African-American students, but also to identify issues that cause them to be at risk for dropping out and to use retention…