What can parents do to make sure their children with disabilities stay in school and graduate? Be involved. Research shows that one of the most essential strategies for promoting school completion and achievement is family involvement. When families remain involved in their children's middle and high school education, students are more likely to…

"ALAS," an acronym for "Achievement for Latinos through Academic Success" that means "wings" in Spanish, is a middle school (or junior high school) intervention designed to address student, school, family, and community factors that affect dropping out. Each student is assigned a counselor who monitors attendance,…

This report includes state summaries of the annual dropout rate used in the accountability system, along with state attrition rates. It offers a series of longitudinal secondary school completion/student status rates. Out of 1,794,521 students attending Texas public secondary schools during 1999-00, 23,457 dropped out, a decrease of 15.0 percent.…

Studies indicate investments in social programs that raise a poor working mother's income may be especially beneficial to her children when they are of preschool age. Other studies show that high-quality preschool education interventions can have long-term beneficial impacts on school dropout, lifetime earnings and incarceration rates for…

The purpose of this descriptive study was to identify factors related to dropout/retention for distance education students in order to identify variables that might promote participation through completion. The major focus of the study was to document the distance education students' learning progress and to identify variables that relate to their…

The National Dropout Prevention Center designed a project, Student Serving Students, to see if students in kindergarten through twelfth grade could help other students who were at risk of dropping out of school. Communities in Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina developed a variety of ways for students to meet the needs of children at risk.…

Students who eventually drop out of school have a long-term disadvantage in becoming productive citizens. The traditionally structured U.S. high school system does not facilitate high school education for at-risk students. Some schools, however, do organize themselves around the needs of the at-risk student population. This study analyzed the…

The National Dropout Prevention Center for Students with Disabilities (NDPC-SD) was assigned the task of summarizing Indicator 1--Graduation--for the analysis of the 2005-2010 State Performance Plans (SPP), which were submitted to the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) in December of 2005. The text of the indicator is as follows: Percent…

Alternatives in junior high, middle, and intermediate schools run the gamut, the researchers of NASSP's exemplary program files discovered. A few of them are described in this article. (Editor)

Describes an innovative program launched at Lincoln High School in Portland, Oregon, to forestall dropping out'' by longtime underachievers. (EA)

Describes the results of two experimental home economics courses for potential dropouts in inner city schools, the courses having been developed and tested in a cooperative research project. (JM)

Describes an area vocational school which has two programs--one in career exploration and one designed to keep potential dropouts in school. (SB)

Students in six advanced mathematics courses at the Open University were surveyed to identify and analyze reasons for withdrawal from the courses. Specific recommendations for preventing dropout advising and readily available counseling, clarifying course sequences, avoiding assumptions about student sophistication, and developing new curriculum.…

Results indicate freshmen consider academic and personal topics to be important, but academic categories have primacy. To increase freshmen retention, the academic domain warrants a high priority in orientation programs. They should also focus on student life outside the classroom such as finances and extracurricular activities. (Author)

Discusses attrition rate in community colleges and orientation and admission procedures that contribute to attrition. Describes a developmental studies program at Western Piedmont Community College (WPCC) designed to retain high-risk students through career development efforts as well as remedial education. (DR)