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…

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…

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…

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…

Using administrative data from an urban school district, two series of predictive models were tested for their ability to project a student's high school graduation status. The models included student grades, attendance, behavior, demographic predictors, and school-level variables. Eighth and ninth-grade variables were tested for two graduation…

Students in high school or secondary school face challenges that too often lead them to drop out of school. Administrators and staff in many of these schools have attempted to address this challenge by adopting a framework of Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) that offers graduated tiers of intervention suited to students' needs.…

Background/Context: Conditional cash transfers (CCTs) have become one of the most prevalent and rapidly growing social assistance strategies in developing countries. Typically, education-focused CCT programs provide monthly or bimonthly cash payments to students who meet specific attendance requirements. There is a wealth of literature documenting…

Early school leaving has profound implications at a socio-economic level and planning effective prevention programs within school is crucial for contrasting it. Based on the hypothesis that the dropout is the last step of a process that ends in the student's decision to leave school, we studied the interplay between multiple risk factors of school…

Earning a high school diploma is a milestone that has been linked to many later life outcomes, from employment to incarceration to physical health, and impacts society as a whole through tax revenues and government spending. Yet, youth leaving school prior to obtaining a diploma remains a challenge nationwide, particularly in large cities. Given…

Aim/Purpose: One of the main objectives of higher education institutions is to provide a high-quality education to their students and reduce dropout rates. This can be achieved by predicting students' academic achievement early using Educational Data Mining (EDM). This study aims to predict students' final grades and identify honorary students at…

Alternative schools are vital spaces for students who are not successful in traditional schools. The knowledge of social and emotional learning (SEL) and the impact it has on students who attend alternative schools specifically is limited. The problem addressed by this study was the lack of success that explicit SEL programs have in meeting the…

The purpose of this study was to contribute to the body of literature regarding decisions school leaders make when developing strategic plans to improve student outcomes. This study investigated whether there is a significant relationship between school climate and graduation rates for public high schools in the state of Georgia when controlling…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate a state-wide teen pregnancy dropout prevention program using cost-benefit analysis. Data analyzed from five high schools covering a decade compared three student populations: teens from the general population, teens who were enrolled in the fully online program, and teens who selected out of the full…