Reviews dropout characteristics; identifies the components of an overall dropout prevention approach; and describes the role of legislation, school administration, and public-private collaboratives in developing dropout prevention strategies. Emphasizes the use of public and private resources to improve the opportunities of the disadvantaged. (FMW)

The Canadian government is meeting the rising demand for highly skilled workers with a $296.4 million national dropout prevention initiative over five years. This document, written in both English and French, describes the initiative. More than half of the funds will be allocated to programs and services, more than a quarter to mobilizing…

A description is provided of the first-year activities of Clackamas County's Vocational Options Program (VOP), a program for high-risk youth focusing on affective skills, pre-employment training, specific job skill training, employment placement, and independent living. Part I looks at the employment training needs of young people in Clackamas…

Families in urban areas struggle with drug abuse, poverty, increasing housing costs, and lack of affordable child care. The challenges confronting urban schools include a higher dropout rate, higher youth unemployment, and the need to address a variety of special needs of their student population, such as programs for pregnant students, dropouts,…

This paper discusses the potential of school district-based and community-wide approaches to dropout prevention, and provides a summary of the goals and expected outcomes of the Consortium on Dropout Prevention, and the Urban Dropout Prevention Collaboratives Program. The Consortium on Dropout Prevention was formed to cooperatively gather and…

The report describes the development of the Youth Training in the Private Sector Model for conducting on-the-job training for high school age youth. It is based on a two-year study of the Vocational Exploration in the Private Sector (VEPS) Program in New York City, which placed potential dropouts in work/training positions in the private sector…

This paper describes a model for a literacy program proposed for the Rural Education Project at Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville. The program would target unemployed adults, at-risk youth and others in a seven-county target area whose lack of reading skills hampers their search for employment. The model calls for cooperative…

The National Council of La Raza has developed five innovative community based demonstration projects to improve the educational outcomes of Hispanics. Three of the projects are designed to address high risk students; the remaining two address the needs of parents and teachers. Each of these projects is designed to be implemented by Hispanic…

Designed to gather and analyze the information needed to develop a plan for a model comprehensive occupational education system (COES), this research project is reported in five chapters. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the project which was conducted in the Bronx borough of New York City because this area exemplifies the problems of urban…