This resource handbook was developed to provide constituent school district personnel with a variety of strategies for improving student attendance and for reducing the dropout rate. A significant number of studies completed during the last 5 years have identified attendance as the critical issue confronting school administrators. Further, recent…

To furnish constituent school district personnel with a number of alternative educational programs for reducing the dropout rate, this resource handbook was published by the Oakland Schools (Michigan) Department of Pupil Personnel Services. Provided within this second handbook discussing various strategies for improving student attendance and for…

Although several theoretical positions deal with the concept of childhood depression, accurate measurement of depression can only occur if valid and reliable measures are available. Current efforts emphasize direct questioning of the child and quantification of parents' observations. One scale used to study childhood depression, the Personality…

A study investigated the existence of language disorders among 290 "high risk" middle school students (grades five through nine) in five selected Florida school districts. "High risk" students were defined as those students experiencing academic difficulties in whom language deficits would be suspected. Students from the…

The premature closing of the Intermountain Intertribal School (IIS), a majority of whose students were referred because they were particularly difficult to serve and required special attention, represents a significant risk factor for the academic development of the students concerned. Of the 331 freshmen, sophomores, and juniors enrolled,…

A model depicting dropping out of high school as a process is presented. Against a longitudinal mapping of student experiences, questions about standards or exit tests are addressed. Existing research on dropouts provided the empirical basis for the model. The central features of the model are the academic and social systems of the school.…

A concerted effort to pool resources and coordinate work by federal, state, and local educational agencies will be necessary to overcome the fragmentation that is occurring due to the current climate of changing demographics, increasing illiteracy, and the social effects of minorities in our schools. California has shown major changes in the…

According to a recent model of alcohol use (Hull, 1981), individuals moderate their sensitivity to the implications of success and failure by drinking following personal failure to reduce self-consciousness and not drinking following success to remain self-conscious. To test the hypothesis that adolescent alcohol consumption would be a joint…

In order to identify the relationship among social support networks, depression, life events, and student progress in medical school, 96 students completed a questionnaire. The results indicated good social support, a high number of recent life events, slight depression and a continuum of not quite passing to doing extremely well in medical…

A study assessed the effectiveness of various ways of identifying at-risk middle school students for participation in a dropout prevention program. It was considered important to explore factors related to identifying students who were most in need of the program. During the first semester of the project, teacher recommendations, attendance, age,…

Pursuant to a bill passed by the Iowa legislature requiring training for mandatory reporters of child abuse, this manual addresses the fundamental issues of identifying and reporting child abuse. Chapter 1 is an overview of the history of child abuse and how the current system of reporting has evolved. Chapter 2 is a basic primer on the physical…

This study examines promotion and retention standards at the elementary school level in Detroit Public Schools. Forty-eight teachers from five schools participated. Data collected for each of 420 randomly selected students included: (1) mastery and nonmastery ratings on each of the essential skills in language arts, affective education, and…

A study focused on promotion/retention policies, retention rates, and the problems/objectives associated with their implementation. Thirty-three of the 43 members of the Council of the Great City Schools responded to a survey that measured three demographic characteristics: the percentage of students eligible for free and reduced-price lunch; the…

This document summarizes information on the second year of operation of 93 projects participating in the State of Illinois prekindergarten educational grant program for children at-risk due to environmental deficits. Contents provide: (1) background information on the legislation establishing the program, program evaluation schedules, and a…

Education is an investment in human potential which effects economic prosperity. The high rate of failure for students in public elementary schools from eight large school districts in Louisiana is alarming. Averaged over the school years 1983-1984 to 1985-1986, the percentage of failures in grades 1 through 8 ranges from 6.65% to 17.6%. The state…