This booklet for dropout prevention program coordinators is part of a series of program materials for a school-based intervention process to help at-risk students stay in school. An introduction lists the qualities a good program coordinator must have or will need to develop as well as the specific tasks a program coordinator must do to make the…

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…

This report develops a topology of approaches to high school dropout prevention, and uses it to examine and review the effectiveness of existing programs, and to identify major gaps in current practice and research. Research on dropouts was reviewed to identify the kinds of students who drop out and their reasons for dropping out. Based on this…

This report describes two studies completed by the Child Advocacy Commission of Durham, North Carolina. The Durham school system has one of the lowest retention rates of any system in the state. The studies were used to advocate for and help implement new and better dropout prevention strategies in their schools. The report also outlines the need…

To develop and test a theoretical model, based on the Theory of Reasoned Action (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975), for understanding and predicting the decision to stay in or drop out of school, to identify the specific beliefs that are the basis of that decision, and to evaluate the use of moderator variables (sex, race) to individualize the model,…

School finance reform--traditionally based exclusively on school districts' access to funding--has been made difficult by fiscal retrenchment on one hand and the educational excellence movement on the other. Stating that school districts must consider the use as well as the availability of funds, this paper proposes a new definition of equity that…

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,…

This formative evaluation of the Atlantic Street Center's Pre-Teen Bridge Program (P-T Bridge) focused on the academic support and prosocial skill development components of the program. The academic component included one-on-one tutoring, and the prosocial skill component included activities and materials designed to improve social and…

Vocational education has a significant role to play in dropout prevention because studies show a positive correlation between involvement in vocational education and school completion. Students involved in vocational education are more likely to be involved in school-sponsored activities that help them shape goals for themselves and the future.…

In spite of difficulties in analyzing student retention in community college programs and courses, certain facts about student attrition are known. First, students who drop out of class or school tend to have lower grades than students who persist. Second, the ability of students to drop in and out of community colleges at will has negative…

This paper examines the potential influence of school reform policies on the high school dropout rate. We summarize a diverse set of reports on American education which recommend increasing academic standards in schools as a means for improving secondary school performance. We also describe our understanding of the processes by which youngsters…

The Alternative Co-operative Education Program (ACE program) of the Peel Board of Education in Ontario, Canada is a program implemented to address the needs of students who were leaving the school system before graduation. The objectives of the ACE program are to provide at-risk students with the opportunity to combine in-school and out-of-school…

This document offers guidance to educators concerned with enhancing recruitment, retention, and graduation of American Indian adult students, especially in North Carolina. Following a summary and recommendations of the project committee, the guide traces the history of the Indian communities from 1900 to the present and outlines the educational…

The costly supplemental or alternative programs that combat chronic school failure and continued high dropout rates are not always effective for the following reasons: (1) students do not always find out which programs are available, and (2) if no suitable program is available, there is usually no one responsible for trying to create one. People…

In 1979 a program was initiated at the Georges Valley High School in Thomaston, Maine, to identify high risk students who would be likely to drop out of high school and then to design and implement a program for ninth grade students that would motivate them to stay in school. A subsequent review of the impact of the program on its participants…