An overview is provided of problems and potential solutions associated with high dropout rates at community colleges. The first sections look at the extent and nature of the dropout problem, highlighting some of the causes of student discontinance, the costs to the individual and society, and the paradox of open access and student retention in…

Research presented in this report focuses on data obtained through the 1982 and 1985 "Survey of Public Participation in the Arts" and relates to musical theater, operetta, and opera attendance. The objectives of this study were to focus on those findings which might help opera or musical theater organizations attract and understand…

This paper considers data on community college students provided by the California Statewide Longitudinal Study (SLS) and the implications of this study for curriculum and educational planning in areas other than vocational education, with special emphasis on implications for the transfer program. First, a background is provided on the origins and…

Key factors influencing the decision to attend private school are identified in this paper. It looks at the factors accounting for varying rates of private school attendance and estimates the responsiveness of such attendance to government support. It studies the variation in private school attendance rates at three levels: across states, across…

This report of the Council on Quality Education to the 1981 Minnesota Legislature containing data current through fiscal 1980, discusses policy issues related to early childhood and family education within the state. The report's eight chapters describe the following: (1) nine revised policy recommendations; (2) the conceptualization and…

As part of a series of reports dealing with racial distribution in San Francisco schools, this memorandum presents the rationale for adopting patterns of educational reorganization as an accompaniment to efforts to improve racial balance. Reasons are presented for adopting feeder patterns as students progress from the elementary to secondary…

This document describes a program developed and implemented in three Philadelphia schools for the purpose of reducing the number of dropouts at the elementary, junior high, and high school levels. A needs assessment of the three schools, a review of the related literature, and the objectives of the program are provided. Specific strategies…

Reported are the results of a study to determine the reasons as many as 40 percent of the admitted students at some liberal arts colleges leave the campus for a semester or longer before graduation. Information was gathered through responses and records of several thousand persons in the three-year study conducted by five New England colleges and…

This dissertation examines three reform movements: the curriculum reform movement, the Great Society Programs of the Kennedy and Johnson Administration, and the current competency-based teacher education (CBTE) movement. Using the CBTE approach, this dissertation focuses on dimensions with which CBTE did not deal-specifically, low income…

The questions investigated in this study were whether the casual Sunday-afternoon visitor followed a sequence of exhibits at the Peabody Museum of Natural History (Yale University) in the order intended, how much time he spent studying the exhibits, how often he read the labels, and especially, whether this arrangement prevented or even delayed…

Using official records and two sample surveys, this longitudinal study analyzed patterns of attendance and persistence among University of Minnesota General Extension Division evening class (EC) students. They tended to be young (under 30), male, and married. Roughly half each year were new to the university as well as to the evening classes.…

Using a social learning approach, this study compared the effects of two experimental mini-courses on a specially constructed measure of competency of behavioral response. The two experimental groups and the control group were all black high school students. The curricula suitable for use by high school teachers utilized behavioral modification…

Nine sets of annual data on State school finances are used to test a theory of expenditure determination by public school districts. The results support implications of the theory regarding effects of personal income, State and federal aid, the relative price of education, the pupil/population ratio, and enrollment growth on per pupil spending. A…

A 1982 study comparing the Open University with 27 other institutions providing part-time bachelors degree programs in two regions of Yorkshire revealed that although the Open University has some aspects that students might find preferable, there are many areas in which other institutions are competitive. (MSE)

Students who attend schools with environmental hazards that impact indoor air quality are more likely to miss class, and therefore lose learning opportunities. Yet school environmental health and safety remains largely unregulated and there is no state or federal agency in charge of protecting children's environmental health in schools. This…