Practices of attendance, suspension, and non-promotion in middle schools in Boston (Massachusetts) encourage at-risk students to drop out. School policies and practices, student data, and interviews with at-risk students were reviewed to determine which practices encourage disengagement from school. Personal narratives are included. Major findings…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 38 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) the effect of phrase-segmented, antiphrase segmented, and standard text on the free recall and probed recall of third and fourth grade developmental readers;…

To study the relationship between the school and the rural family, and particularly to establish reasons for student dropout, a questionnaire was administered in 1973 to 103 students who dropped out of school in 2 large rural towns in the Veneto, Italy. Responses indicated that about 60% of the adolescents left school to help out the family or…

Houston, Texas, was one of the cities awarded a grant via the Annenberg funds to implement school reforms. It developed the Houston Annenberg Challenge with local collaborators to initiate and nurture systemic change, thus improving education. A research and evaluation study investigated how funded schools implemented the reform initiative, what…

This report presents findings from the 2000 Youth in Transition Survey 18-20-year-old cohort, which documents Canadian youth education and labor market experiences. By age 20, most youth had graduated from high school, and 70 percent were participating in postsecondary education. Dropout rates were higher for males than females. High school…

This report examines progress on key education indicators of black children and adults, utilizing statistics published by the National Center for Education Statistics in various reports and from other federal agencies. It shows that more black students have completed high school and gone on to college, levels of parental education have increased,…

The Optional Extended Year Program (OEYP), funded by a grant from the state, provides extended learning opportunities for students in kindergarten through grade 12 (K-12) who are at risk of academic failure. The primary focus of an OEYP is to reduce and ultimately eliminate the need for student grade-level retention by providing additional…

The study identifies some of the greatest disparities for boys and men of color relative to their white counterparts across specific socioeconomic, health, safety, and school readiness indicators in California and provides information about different strategies for reducing the disparities--including effective programs, practices, and…

Project Accelerated Curriculum Classes Emphasizing Learning (ACCEL) was implemented by the Newark School District (New Jersey) in the 1989-90 school year in response to the ineffective practice of retaining underachieving students. The innovative approach of accelerated learning was made available to retained sixth and seventh grade students.…

The study examined the phenomenon of repeaters as a part of wastage via a review of the literature on the subject and a 5-year study (1977-81) of primary schools in Ciskei. The literature revealed that the impact of repeaters on educational system manifests itself in different ways, i.e., large classes, high drop-out rate, the demoralizing effect…

The four 1998 issues of the journal on literacy education, entirely in Spanish, include these articles: "The Inevitable Radical Weakness of Language: Some Reflections about Forming Readers and Citizens" (Daniel Goldin); "Relationships among Reading and Writing, Thematic Units, Learning Through Research...In Search of Effective…

This document is comprised of the six issues in volume 15 of the Harvard Education Letter, a bimonthly newsletter addressing current issues in elementary and secondary education. Articles in this volume include the following: (1) January-February--"Retention vs. Social Promotion: Schools Search for Alternatives" (Kelly), and "School…

Standards-based reform is a strategy that includes specifying what is to be learned, devising tests to measure learning, and establishing consequences of performance for students and schools. Popular support remains strong for standards-based reform, according to national polling data as well as local data in the states implementing this strategy.…

There is continuing controversy about the optimal or appropriate age at which children should start school. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between age and achievement. It is an attempt to evaluate the hypothesis that older students fare better academically than their younger classmates. Findings indicate that on average…

This statistical supplement provides state-level trend data for 10 indicators of children's well-being: (1) low birthweight infants; (2) infant mortality; (3) death rate of children ages 1 to 14 years; (4) kindergarten retention; (5) violent death rate of teenagers aged 15 to 19 years; (6) juvenile arrests; (7) youth completing high school; (8)…