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…

The personal stories of young women who have either dropped out of school or are at risk of dropping out, reveal a complex set of perceptions, interpretations, and contradictions regarding the roles of race, gender, and class in their behavior and attitudes. A one-year research project was conducted in Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) with 75 females,…

The relationship between learning and continuity and change in adult life was explored in a study involving 140 in-depth biographical interviews of adult learners in 3 different areas of England and case studies of 6 adult learners. The study methodology was based on a triangular conceptualization according to which personal identity, human…

This book uses poetry and essays to share how welfare reform has affected the lives of a group of female adult literacy students from western Massachusetts. After a brief explanation of the book's purpose, the women who presented their views in the book's poems and essays are profiled. Presented next are six poems that several of the women wrote…