To counter the teenage pregnancy epidemic, sex education should be expanded to a twelve year learning program. Schools must develop imaginative and innovative programs geared to their individual and community needs. School-based medical clinics and special programs for pregnant and parenting teens may be necessities in some communities. (MD)

This annual report presents comprehensive findings about high school completion and non-completion in Texas public schools. It includes state summaries of the annual grades 7-12 dropout rate used in the accountability system and a new series of longitudinal high school completion/student status rates. The series includes four-year rates for…

Describes the Youth Opportunity Program at the Central Islip, New York, Psychiatric Center and evaluates its effectiveness in preventing school dropout and providing career training. (ST)

Dayton (Ohio) Public Schools have two new programs for potential dropouts, called University Prep Program and New Options for Work, that take the students out of classes with younger students and treat them as the young adults they are. (MLF)

California's Mathematics, Engineering, and Science Achievement (MESA) program, based at the University of California at Berkeley, administers Minority Engineering Programs on 18 public and private college and university campuses. The programs have been successful in raising retention rates among underrepresented minority groups, and are being…

The ASPIRA Association, an organization serving Latino youth through leadership development, education, and advocacy, is sponsoring the Hispanic Community Mobilization for Dropout Prevention, a project focused on increasing parental and community involvement in promoting high school retention and academic achievement. (SK)

By providing immediate intensive interventions when learning problems occur, the Success for All program has improved the achievement of students at an innercity Baltimore elementary school. (TE)

Recognizing the potential of combining interdisciplinary methods with block program scheduling to serve underachieving high schoolers, the East Manhattan Outreach Center's staff initiated such a program in 1993. Students were block-programmed, using four classes of 28 pupils each enrolled in six courses. The program stressed small-group activities…

Describes the revitalization of Evarts High School in a poverty-stricken area of rural Kentucky. Reforms included (1) adding 120 electives to the curriculum; (2) beginning a school news service; (3) producing a weekly video program aired on cable television; and (4) offering privilege cards for attendance, achievement, and participation in…

One component of a Missouri school-community partnership is a cooperative effort to improve the work force in the community and keep young people in school. Requiring new employees to have high school diplomas and establishing general education development programs near work places have lowered the dropout rate from 25 percent to only 15 percent.…

Experiences from dropout programs that serve at-risk students at a North Carolina school district identify planning and management considerations. Among these are that dropout rates and other measures of success must be standardized; and staff selection, duty assignments, and workloads are different for at-risk educators because of inordinate time…

Shortly after Amityville (New York) High School teachers introduced the learning style concept, their classes began to experiment with alternative groupings, varied instructional strategies, and individualized response activities. Student achievement gains were easily estimated, but gains in self-esteem are immeasurable. (MLH)

Describes a new instrument to predict dropouts, the Student At-Risk Identification Scale (SARIS). The SARIS consists of two subscales, one from student records and one that is a self-report. Scale construction is described, and narrative data are presented, along with evidence of reliability and validity. Predictive and diagnostic values of the…

Discusses research on successful support programs for potential dropouts. Describes a Detroit high school's Ninth Grade Project 96 program, an intervention strategy for high-risk, low-achieving students. The program used a modified block schedule; attendance, academic, and monitoring interventions; incentives and rewards; and team teachers.…

The concept of school engagement has attracted increasing attention as representing a possible antidote to declining academic motivation and achievement. Engagement is presumed to be malleable, responsive to contextual features, and amenable to environmental change. Researchers describe behavioral, emotional, and cognitive engagement and recommend…