This paper looks at the sources of fear among incoming undergraduate students and discusses possible ways to alleviate such fears. The paper reports that, though many students have difficulty naming their fears, several can easily be identified such as fear of the unknown. This fear can be dealt with or forestalled through tours of the campus.…

This report presents findings on school leaving, part of a 5-year study on the transition of youth with disabilities from secondary school to early adulthood. Telephone interviews were conducted in 1987 with parents of approximately 8,000 youth (ages 13 to 21 and enrolled in special education in 1985-86) representing all 11 federal special…

This report reviews prekindergarten programs in fiscal years 1987-88 in Illinois, where an estimated 112,000 children of 3-4 years of age are at risk of academic failure. Each year, State Board of Education staff collect data on prekindergarten programs and the children they serve in order to answer four primary questions: (1) What are the…

This paper identifies and assesses factors that may characterize students at risk of dropping out, based on a ninth grade class of Cincinnati (Ohio) public school students which was followed for five years, from 1984-85 to 1988-89. The paper aims to develop a quick, easy, and reliable method that teachers, counselors, and principals can use to…

A father describes how the public school system made his daughter, Charlie, into a disabled reader. Charlie had experienced early reading success both at home and in kindergarten, and enjoyed reading. Placed in the low reading group in first grade, Charlie resisted the dull, structured exercises of remedial reading instruction which she received…

Student attrition is a major problem for American colleges and universities because an increasing number of enrollees fit the demographic and socioeconomic profile of "high-risk" students, who consist in general of minorities, the academically disadvantaged, the disabled, and those of low socioeconomic status. Declining enrollments leave…

Schools typically place a high value on the dominant middle-class approach to becoming literate: they expect all children to arrive at school familiar with books and able to discuss stories. However, community use of printed materials varies, resulting in a large number of nonmainstream children deemed at risk for school failure at an early age.…

A personalized parenting program was implemented to address poor academic performance and low self-esteem of high school students. Student records, the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory, the Behavior Evaluation Scale, and teacher surveys were employed to identify and measure academic and/or self-perception growth. Parents participated in an 8-week…

In 1985, Virginia state law was amended to change the birth date for automatic eligibility for kindergarten from December 31 to September 30. The law allowed school districts to admit young children with birthdays from October 1 through December 31, provided the children were tested for kindergarten readiness. Testing for admission to school for…

Students who drop out of high school before graduating are of concern to families, educators, and policymakers. To obtain information on the scope of the dropout problem, three sources of national data were reviewed: (1) the Bureau of the Census' Current Population Survey; (2) the Center for Statistics' Common Core of Data; and (3) the Center for…

This report is a summary of dropout rates for the 1980-81, 1981-82, and 1982-83 school years. From 1980 to 1983, dropout rates at individual schools ranged from 4.1 percent to 15.5 percent at regular high schools, 15.6 percent to 40.7 percent at continuation schools, and 12.1 percent to 50.3 percent in independent study programs at continuation…

John Tyler Community College (JTCC) in Virginia founded the Extended Learning Institute (ELI) in 1982 as a program to develop and administer instruction via alternative delivery systems. Print-based, independent study courses have been the primary alternative system used, though telecourses were offered from fall 1983 through winter 1985 and again…

This programmatic series of three studies compares, in British and Hungarian secondary schools, two contrasting conceptualizations of motivation and successively relates them to approaches to learning and studying and then to indices of self-concept and attributions of success and failure. The first conceptualization was developed in Hungary and…

Many big cities have instituted systematic retention to replace social promotion policies. This study examined the extent to which retaining low achieving students in their current grade for an additional year has a built-in effect on the average reading scores for the grade in which they were retained and the grade they would have been promoted…

This evaluation report contains descriptive information about the population of students retained during the 1985-86 school year under a new policy in San Diego City (California) Schools. The courses failed by at-risk secondary school students were analyzed in terms of course content and student outcomes. Intervention strategies attempted with…