This study evaluates the effects of a group intervention for women sexually abused in childhood or adulthood. The sample consisted of 41 women involved in a group intervention based on a feminist approach offered by help centers for sexual assault victims in Quebec and 11 women in a wait-list comparison group. Results reveal that the group…

Since 1991, the U.S. has had a national research and development (R&D) center focused on programs that help adults to improve their language, literacy, and numeracy skills; to acquire a General Educational Development (GED) or other high school certification; and to transition into postsecondary education or training. For the first five years,…

This article provides a brief historical context and analysis of current middle school reform efforts to promote student engagement by facilitating social relationships. International comparisons of perceived social climate are presented to assess whether sense of belonging and support are lacking in American schools. Research documenting…

This study investigated the impact of students' conceptions of constructivist learning activities on academic achievement and drop-out. Although constructivism represents an influential view of learning, studies investigating how students conceptualize this perspective have not been conducted before. A structural equation modelling approach was…

Information was collected in 1993 from students who withdrew from courses in mid-term at a community college either because they were dropping a course or departing from the college. This report documents withdrawal patterns of students during the calendar year of 1994. Self-reported reasons for course/college withdrawal were identified and…

This study used survival analysis (also called event history analysis) to investigate how long specially admitted students at Northern Illinois University persist, in which year of their education they are most likely to leave, and if the risk of leaving school is affected by personal and academic background characteristics. Specially admitted…

Researchers and educators have examined the educational consequences of large and small schools. The major concerns documented in the literature on school size reflect four primary areas--curriculum, climate, achievement, and restructuring. This volume incorporates recent research on the effects of school size. Chapter 1 contains four research…

Most large and mid-size cities suffer from alarming numbers of high school drop-outs. One man decided to do something about his city's high drop-out rate: He started the Urban Collaborative Accelerated Program (UCAP), an independent, public, middle school for teenagers at risk of dropping out. The details of that program are outlined here. The…

Project RETAIN (Retention in Education Technical Assistance and Information Network) is a Florida project that assists school districts through identification and dissemination of effective practices that keep students with mild disabilities in school. One part of the project was the development of a database of school district efforts in the area…

As an outgrowth of work to establish collaborative relations and to develop strategies for creating, monitoring, evaluating, and improving community programs, this planning guide has been developed to help Urban League chapters and others plan and implement programs for local needs. The guide is organized into the following nine steps: (1) build…

In the 1996-97 school year, 86,058 public schools provided instruction to 45.6 million students in the United States. A statistical overview offers a profile of these schools and students. The majority of public school students, 98.2 percent, were enrolled in regular schools; 0.05 percent were in special education schools; 0.04 percent in…

The concept of systemic school change as a comprehensive approach to raising academic achievement and preventing school dropouts in Massachusetts is summarized in this report. Following a description of systemic school change, reasons for adopting a systemic change approach are offered. Nine princples of systemic school change are provided,…

This paper describes and encourages the application of 20 classroom techniques to enhance the retention and success of black male college students. Though retention enhancement programs work best when institution-wide support and commitment are behind them, the techniques described here can be implemented in the classroom with significant results…

The Iowa Behavioral Initiative (IBI) is aimed at improving the capabilities of Iowa schools in meeting the diverse personal, social, and behavioral needs of students with behavioral disorders (BD). This report describes findings from three IBI data gathering activities: (1) historical and current (Spring 1993) statistical data on students with…

A survey of 1,300 school administrators and 441 school psychologists examined perceptions of the causes of dropping out (891 administrators returned usable surveys for a response rate of 71.8%; the school psychologists' sample was part of a larger study that had yielded a response rate of 57%). Using a 5-point Likert scale, respondents rated 42…