The Colorado Department of Education recently received state funding to implement a Student Re-Engagement Grant Program (SRGP). The goal of this project is to inform the administration of the SRGP by looking back at data from a previously administered grant program, called Colorado Graduation Pathways (CGP). The CGP program was a federally funded…

This study focused on young women's perceptions of the factors that influenced their lack of success in traditional high school settings and the factors that led them to enroll and complete the alternative program, Gateway to College. The Gateway to College program is a coeducational program, but this study l focused solely on young women who…

This study reports on the implementation of Gateway to College, a program whose mission is to serve students who have dropped out of high school, or who are at risk of dropping out of high school, by allowing them to earn a high school diploma and credits toward a postsecondary degree. Gateway to College is uniquely ambitious in providing…

This study investigated the relation between building human capital of former dropouts and their occupational standing and the interaction effects with individual characteristics. By applying the growth curve model, this study highlighted the factors that lead high school dropouts to enhance their occupational standing. An increment in the work…

This study tests an empirical multidimensional model of school dropout, using data collected in the first year of an 8-year longitudinal study, with first year high school students aged 12-13 years. Structural equation modeling analyses show that five personal, family, and school latent factors together contribute to school dropout identified at…

MDRC develops and studies programs to help young people who face major barriers in finding a path to stable adult life. Their recent roster of youth-related projects mainly targets three groups: at-risk high school students; dropouts disconnected from school and work; and system-involved youth at risk of disconnection, including youth exiting…

In the United States in 2011, 6,000 students between the ages of 16 and 24 dropped out of high school on a daily basis. Educators have developed numerous dropout prevention programs to address this problem. However, little research exists examining how high school principals and counselors engage students in these programs. The purpose of this…

This report provides national estimates about dropout prevention services and programs in public school districts. The estimates presented in this report are based on a district survey about dropout prevention services and programs offered by the district or by any of the schools in the district during the 2010-11 school year. For this survey,…

"Exito" means "success" in Spanish, so it is a fitting name for a dropout prevention program. Set in a large neighborhood high school in a low-income, largely Latino section of Philadelphia, Exito supports ninth- and tenth-grade students who are at risk of dropping out of school by providing them with afterschool programming…

This 5-year longitudinal randomized study focused on the effects of a dropout prevention program implemented at two urban high schools. The program incorporated the characteristics of personalization found in previous research to have some positive effects, and typical of the type of programs implemented in many high schools nationwide. The…

The merits of a public campaign can rarely be gauged fully in its early months or even in its initial year. Rather, the true measures of a campaign's successes are revealed over time: in its ongoing impacts on opinion or policy, and on the tangible results it achieves. On both accounts, Philadelphia's Project U-Turn campaign continues to make…

High school students with disabilities who drop out are costly to society. Compared to those who graduate, they are more likely to be unemployed, dependent on public services, and involved in the criminal justice system. Consequently, helping students with disabilities graduate has become a prominent national concern. Students with disabilities…

The current study replicates work of Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Northeast and Islands. It describes dropout prevention programs in nine Mid-Atlantic Region (Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania) school districts serving communities with populations of 24,742-107,250 (as of July 2008). All nine…

High school students with disabilities who drop out are costly to society. Compared to those who graduate, they are more likely to be unemployed, dependent on public services, and involved in the criminal justice system. Consequently, helping students with disabilities graduate has become a prominent national concern. Students with disabilities…

Taste of community college keeps potential dropouts in school. (Editor)