A major area of concern in academia is that of student retention at the university, college, and departmental levels. As academics, there is a considerable amount that we can do to improve student retention, and reduce the attrition rates in our departments. One way to solve this is to take an innovative approach in the classroom to enhance the…

This paper investigates the impact of idiosyncratic and covariate economic shocks, on the likelihood of children dropping out of primary school. In this endeavour, an Accelerated Failure Time Hazard model was estimated using data from the Young Lives study of childhood poverty. The estimated results indicate that both idiosyncratic shocks and…

This article provides an overview of research carried out with early school-leavers in four Youthreach centres in the West of Ireland. It offers progressive perspectives on links between early school leaving and mental health related issues. In particular the participants' stories reveal that their mainstream schooling experiences had a damaging…

Some of today's most successful Internet entrepreneurs didn't graduate from college. Many young people today followed the same path to pursue their dreams however ended up failing, not a surprise because 80% of the startups fail in first 5 years. As technology innovation and market competition on Internet continue to accelerate, college students…

In this paper, we describe a novel methodology, grounded in techniques from the field of machine learning, for modeling emerging social structure as it develops in threaded discussion forums, with an eye towards application in the threaded discussions of massive open online courses (MOOCs). This modeling approach integrates two simpler, well…

While the literature on postsecondary student success identifies important academic and social factors associated with student outcomes, one question that persists concerns the influence of financial aid. We use the National Student Clearinghouse's StudentTracker service to develop a more complete model of student success that accommodates…

Sport appears to present a powerful tool for engaging socially vulnerable youth in an organised context, which offers an opportunity to work with them. However, we have little understanding regarding participation of socially vulnerable young people in the "traditional" sport sector (i.e. sports clubs). Nor do we have sufficient insights…

Many educators posed in class why students lack interest in learning mathematics. Regularly this lack of interest in learning is accompanied with difficulties and is perceived by teachers, in general, from the basic stage until the adult stage process. The study seeks to explain the strength of association or correlation between social psychology,…

Many current national and institutional education policies address the issue of raising participation amongst young people and enhancing employability after leaving school or university. What sort of information are these policies built on? This paper compares national information systems from the last three decades across Europe that gather…

In this selection, the author provides a re-representation of data that honors the voice of participants, allowing readers the opportunity to draw their own interpretations about what the participants' lived experiences mean. Developed from a study designed to explore the lived experiences of 18- to 25-year-olds transitioning from high school…

This study estimates the high school dropout rate in rural and urban areas, the determinants of dropping out, and whether the differences in graduation rates have changed over time. We use geocoded data from two nationally representative panel household surveys (NLSY 97 and NLSY 79) and a novel methodology that corrects for biases in graduation…

In 2007, Mooresville Graded School District developed a strategic plan to infuse twenty-first-century learning skills into the schools by providing staff and students in grades four through twelve with a laptop computer. In late fall of 2007, Mooresville High School deployed laptops to all certified staff and to the entire student body in the…

More than half of 9th graders in the United States will never complete a college degree. High schools must do more than prepare some students for college: They must prepare all American youth for productive lives as well as continued learning beyond high school. In this timely volume, two educational leaders advocate for a more meaningful high…

The study evaluates the efficacy of an intensive, reading intervention, a dropout prevention intervention, and an intensive, reading intervention plus dropout prevention on high school students' reading achievement and rates of dropout/school engagement. This paper focuses on the reading intervention and on reading outcomes. Data on the drop out…

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the number of administrators and counselors in schools and the graduation rates in those schools. Administrators and counselors work closely with students and have the unique opportunity to design and sustain support systems that can prevent dropouts. The overarching investigative…