Used data from a sample of Australian teenagers to investigate neighborhood effects on school dropout rate, examining both small and large neighborhood effects. Student surveys indicated that the educational composition of the larger neighborhoods influenced dropout rates, and the low socioeconomic status of the immediate neighborhood had an…

Explores the increased level of interest in retention rates among full-time, undergraduate students, considering the interests served by the state, universities and colleges, and students, and suggesting that as British higher education moves from an elite to a mass system, the elite instincts continue to dominate, working against student…

Interviews with 40 students planning to take the General Education Development test disclosed that less than half had been involved with gangs. Most saw urban teachers as powerless, mentioned adverse circumstances and feelings of hopelessness, and viewed the GED program as a rite of passage and achievable goal. (MLH)

Discusses 15 effective strategies for dropout prevention identified by the National Dropout Prevention Center, plus a specific set of six program solutions and strategies as alternatives to grade retention. Describes the center's promotion-with-purpose policy, along with exemplar programs for school leaders to use in designing alternatives to…

Investigates whether state course graduation requirements affect high-school dropout decisions, using aggregate data on dropout rates, individual data from two time periods, and aggregate data on high-school completion rates over 15 years. Results strongly suggest that state-mandated minimum course requirements cause students to drop out.…

Discusses how many Middle Eastern students, pressured by their parents and in the face of growing hostility on American campuses, are abandoning their studies to return to their home countries. (EV)

Attrition statistics for first-year students in many tertiary environments suggest that students face a wide variety of obstacles. Students in developmental education programmes usually have one additional obstacle: They have a history of failure in academic settings. Therefore there are emotional and psychological barriers in addition to academic…

Support for WIC, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, is based on the belief that "WIC works." This consensus has lately been questioned by researchers who point out that most WIC research fails to properly control for selection into the program. This paper evaluates the selection problem using rich data…

The purpose of this study was to examine the risk of suicidal ideation and suicide attempts and school dropout among youth with poor reading in comparison to youth with typical reading (n = 188) recruited from public schools at the age of 15. In a prospective naturalistic study, youth and parents participated in repeated research assessments to…

This research investigates the relationship between educational engagement and high school degree attainment among school dropouts. Educational engagement considered in this article focuses on student factors such as educational aspiration, organizational skills, and locus of control. Findings of this study show that self-concept engagement…

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…

Students, especially black, Latino and Native American youth and students of low socio-economic status drop out of advanced mathematics. Teachers must coordinate their expectations, their knowledge of students and their teaching practices in order to stop struggling students from dropping out of advanced math classes.

Data from the National Education Longitudinal Study were combined with census data at the zip code level to examine the impact of neighborhood racial and ethnic diversity and consolidated inequality, in addition to individual, family, and school factors, on the likelihood of dropping out of high school. Results indicate that while the effects for…

In this paper I focus on the narratives of youths who attended an alternative school after engaging in the street culture. Based on retrospective narrative stories I examine the ways in which returnees? returning decision stimulates reflections on their past experiences, both in mainstream schools as well as in the street, and the way in which the…

The mission and vision statements of most educational institutions usually share the same lofty goal: to prepare students academically and socially for the opportunities they will face in their future adult lives. Unfortunately, this goal is not being met, and today's generation is facing a crisis going largely unnoticed. Today's graduates appear…