A number of sources have focused upon the lower socio-economic category of community college students and their success in completing a four-year college program. Some are pessimistic, claiming that very low percentages of two-year college students ever graduate from four-year college programs, and that most who drop out are from low income…

Presents nine articles dealing with aspects of testing and the role of the school counselor. Topics include interpreting test scores, testing problems and solutions, developing tests to predict dropping out, sex bias in vocational testing, detecting bias in standardized tests, assessments of reentry adults, and interest tests for adults. (JAC)

Investigates the informal curriculum of a state-funded after-school dropout prevention program for adolescents. The program's goal is to resocialize them into their schools and enable them to achieve academic success. The paper proposes that the program fails to achieve its goal because of its ideology, and it recommends an alternative perspective…

An alternative method for social problem solving is proposed involving increased collaboration between university researchers and school personnel. Academicians can assume the role of external change agents in addressing such educational equity issues as student dropouts. Collaboration should include a humanitarian basis, a problem focus, and a…

Advocates an intrusive advising stance and proactive teaching approach on the part of selected African-American and white faculty members as part of programs to retain disadvantaged African-American students in college. Meeting the political and organizational challenges of retaining disadvantaged African-American students is discussed. (SLD)

The trend toward increasing numbers of poorly prepared, high-risk college students requires a variety of strategies, including strengthened school-college collaboration and networking, taking a holistic approach to retention, attention to the effectiveness of traditional teaching methods, and hiring faculty committed to great teaching. (MSE)

Explores the concepts of risk and resilience applied to eighth graders and suggests advantages in considering a definition of risk grounded in actual school performance and behavior rather than to various group-level probabilities of failure. Evidence shows the importance of family supports, school responsiveness to students, and student…

The core features of the preindustrial model of school-to-work transition are needed now. An environment must be recreated in which young people see the vital connections among education, training, and work that were once so clear. The emerging consensus model has these features: combined formal schooling and structured on-the-job training leading…

This paper suggests 15 steps school superintendents can take to help close the gap between the educationally disadvantaged and other student populations. Superintendents should do the following: (1) create a vision of what an achieving educational community is; (2) implement goals and strategies which create a positive educational climate; (3)…

Educators working to improve dropout prevention programs should closely examine the development of defensive overlays in children's world views. Efforts to neutralize defensive world views within existing dropout prevention initiatives should refocus efforts to be more holistic. Such neutralization may best succeed in small schools. (SM)

Discusses high school dropout problem in the United States. Contends that a number of inappropriate hurdles have been placed between high school students and a diploma of graduation. Advocates a strategy of gaining small wins to help students complete high school and suggests specific tactics of a practical nature for school counselors helping…

Traces strategies for preventing high school dropouts from the traditional reliance on remediation or incentives to recent negative sanctions (e.g., West Virginia's "no school, no drive" law). The General Educational Development Program serves those who return voluntarily to school after having realized the importance of education. (JB)

Portfolio evaluation process promotes thinking while it minimizes multiple-choice mentality. Some educators find that reviewing with the students what they learned, with consideration for the structure of knowledge, provides self-confidence for the pupils' next try. They need self-confidence to critique each other's work, before the teacher…

A 1991 study of non-returning students at Del Mar College (DMC), in Corpus Christi, Texas, revealed that only 37.9% of these students were actual dropouts (i.e., had failed to accomplish their educational goals, and had no plans to take up further study). Retention studies conducted in Texas between 1985 and 1989 have shown that DMC has…

This document records the oral and written given by witnesses at a Congressional hearing on the School-to-Work Opportunities Act of 1993 held in Fall 1993. Witnesses included Senators, the U.S. Secretary of Education, the U.S. Secretary of Labor, business officials, school officials, and program directors of various local and state programs. The…