This practice-application digest addresses what vocational education can do to reduce the almost 30 percent dropout rate among U.S. students. The first section describes factors that place students at risk, focusing on factors included in the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction's definition of the term "at-risk." In the next…

Vocational education is one of the strategies most frequently cited as a dropout prevention measure, and some schools can document such program outcomes as increased student attendance, retention, and graduation rates. Disadvantaged youth who take vocational courses are less likely to be unemployed and more likely to obtain better-paying jobs.…

This guide is intended to encourage South Carolina secondary vocational education administrators, teachers, and counselors to implement programs designed to keep potential dropouts in school and recover those who leave school prematurely, as well as to provide those educators with research findings relevant to such activities. Following an…

The New York state educational system must change to reduce the devastatingly high dropout rate among Hispanic, Black and American Indian students. A dropout is defined as a student who has been dropped from a school's enrollment and who has not graduated from 12th grade nor been transferred to another school. Research into the causes of dropping…

An evaluation was conducted of a 3-year demonstration program the purpose of which was to demonstrate the efficacy of projects that included vocational education as a key component in encouraging at-risk youth to remain in or return to school. Six of the 10 project grantees, funded under the Cooperative Demonstration Program of the Carl D. Perkins…

Vocational education has a significant role to play in dropout prevention because studies show a positive correlation between involvement in vocational education and school completion. Students involved in vocational education are more likely to be involved in school-sponsored activities that help them shape goals for themselves and the future.…

The Special Needs Unit of the Career-Vocational Education Division, California State Department of Education, began sponsoring a secondary school project in 1985 to combat California's high dropout rate. Eight secondary school sites in six districts were selected to develop schoolwide, integrated, career-oriented curriculum that would use the…

A project developed and implemented a plan to retain those adult basic education students who are likely to be successful if they stay enrolled in the program but who are likely to drop out if program staff do not intervene. The plan involved use of an assessment instrument to identify these at-risk students, development of an individualized…

One of the major barriers to making good on this promise is the broad set of misconceptions framing most discussions of the dropout issue. Too often, both public perception and public policy seem based on the notion that dropping out is confined to a small--and particularly unmotivated--group of young people. A related assumption, although rarely…

Arguing that educational disadvantage, underachievement, and dropping out are problems that originate with schools as well as students, this document describes the Work and Learning Center in Madison, Wisconsin, that was designed to meet the needs of high school dropouts. The first section gives disadvantaged students' perspectives on the school…

A study was conducted to identify new points of intervention into the education and social development of economically and educationally disadvantaged youth considered at risk of dropping out of school and never successfully participating in the labor market. The demographic characteristics of the target population were studied, as well as past…

In a case study of four urban adult basic education programs in a northeastern state, large increases in the participation of 16- to 20-year-old students were found. Many of these students were reading below the fifth-grade level despite aspiring to the General Education Development (GED) diploma. Reasons for youth participation included increased…

The at-risk students served by vocational education include academically disadvantaged students, dropouts, students with limited English proficiency (LEP), pregnant teens, single parents, migrants, economically disadvantaged students, handicapped students, and potential dropouts. The claim that the U.S. economy is healthy because unemployment is…