Predicting students' performance to identify which students are at risk of receiving a D/Fail/Withdraw (DFW) grade and ensuring their timely graduation is not just desirable but also necessary in most educational entities. In the US, not only is the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) major becoming less popular among…

Background/Context: The passage of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2002 and the Every Student Succeeds Act in 2015 spurred changes in the way educators use data. On the one hand, the policies inspired educators' awareness of large gaps in achievement between subgroups based on gender, race, and socioeconomic status. On the other hand, the policies…

The purpose of Diploma On! is to re-engage students who have dropped out of school within member districts and ultimately increase the graduation rate in Hennepin County, Minnesota. Program staff obtain student contact information from identified referral sources within each district, normally after a 15-day drop. Next, they contact the student…

In 2019, MDRC launched the Scaling Up College Completion Efforts for Student Success (SUCCESS) project to improve college completion rates for traditionally underserved students, such as students from low-income backgrounds and students of color, at community and broad-access colleges (those that have open or minimally selective admissions…

The Barr Foundation's Engage New England (ENE) initiative was an effort to catalyze high school innovation by developing exemplary schools that support the success of students who are off track to graduate. Grounded in the tenets of positive youth development, the ENE initiative provided grants and technical assistance to support new or redesigned…

To boost college graduation rates, policymakers often advocate for academic supports such as coaching or mentoring. Proactive and intensive coaching interventions are effective, but are costly and difficult to scale. We evaluate a relatively lower-cost group coaching program targeted at first-year college students placed on academic probation.…

Attempts to understand the patterns behind student disengagement and early school leaving have traditionally focussed on early school leavers' individual characteristics. More recently, however, studies have begun to focus on the extent to which early school leaving is shaped by school-level factors, and in particular the central role of teachers…

Guidance and counselling are key features in comprehensive strategies aiming to reduce early leaving from education and training (ELET). It may assist students not only in terms of decision-making, but also of managing their transitions within education and training pathways or from education to employment. Minimising the risks of either…

The success of MOOC (massive open online courses) is rapidly increasing. Most educational institutions are highly interested in these online platforms, which embrace intellectual and educational objectives and provide various opportunities for lifelong learning. However, many limitations, such as learners' diversity, lack of motivation, affected…

There is a well-known positive relation between student engagement and a host of school outcomes. The following article describes a study that explores a commonly used tool for measuring engagement in high schools. Specifically, this study examined internal validity, factor structure, and the relation between factors of engagement (e.g., social,…

High schools around the nation are attempting to find a solution to the "9th-grade bulge," and the ever-growing systematic problem of 9th grade retention. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of the daily bell schedule on ninth-grade student achievement and overall school performance. A mixed method, sequential…

When students drop out of high school there are substantial social and economic consequences that can persist throughout their lives. They are more likely to be unemployed, to become teenage parents, to become involved in the criminal justice system, and to suffer a lifetime of low wages. Dropout rates soared during the COVID-19 pandemic as…

Research, nonprofit, and philanthropic organizations have increasingly had a larger influence in public educational institutions as they support particular programs, practices, and policy reforms. This study investigates the case of local organizations that have initiated and institutionalized high school dropout prediction systems called ninth…

While the value of mentoring has long been presumed in the literature as well as in practices, little is known about the success of formal, and informal mentoring practices (Crisp, 2010; Crisp & Cruz, 2009; & Ward & Ball, 2016). In addition, there is a lack of research on community college student mentoring in higher education…

"Motivation": Enrollments in Brazilian computing degrees are at an all-time high, but graduation numbers have not increased at the same rate. Moreover, enrollment growth has mainly attracted male students, steadily expanding the gender gap in Brazilian computing programs. Such high attrition rates have a great economic impact and may…