Technological devices help extending a person's sensory experience of the environment. From sensors to cameras, devices currently use embedded systems that can be used for the main goal they were designed but they can also be used for other objectives without additional costs of material or service subscription. Emotional assessment is a useful…

Although newly passed federal regulations mandate the provision of family-based aftercare supports for adolescents served in therapeutic residential care, very little research has been conducted to determine best practice. This efficacy and replication study compares the outcomes of youths and caregivers randomly assigned to On the Way Home (OTWH;…

Early Warning Systems (EWSs) aggregate multiple sources of data to provide timely information to stakeholders about students in need of academic support. There is an increasing need to incorporate relevant data about student behaviors into the algorithms underlying EWSs to improve predictors of students' success or failure. Many EWSs currently…

Disciplining and pastoral power are central to the strategies and practices of intervening in the lives of young people deemed at risk of disengaging from school, or not completing their compulsory education. As an expression of power concerned with young people's welfare and self-improvement, disciplining and pastoral practices push young people…

The national high school graduation rate reached its highest level in U.S. history--82 percent--during the 2013-14 school year (Kena et al., 2016)--but dropout remains a persistent problem in the Midwest and nationally. Early warning systems that use research-based warning signs to identify students at risk of dropping out have emerged as one…

The effectiveness of the Check and Connect dropout prevention program was examined, over the course of 2.5 years, with 54 middle school students from diverse backgrounds experiencing one or more conditions of risk for dropout. Participants were randomly assigned to receive the Check and Connect intervention or business as usual (i.e., control) in…

The State Systemic Improvement Plan (SSIP), WV GRADUATION 20/20, was implemented during the 2015-2016 academic school year beginning with sixty-nine (69) schools in thirty-six (36) counties representing fifty-nine (59) percent of West Virginia's high schools. During the 2016-2017 academic year the number of high schools has grew to seventy-two…

The purpose of the present article is to report on a large-scale investigation of six school districts' implementation of an initiative aimed at reducing dropout rates by improving reading achievement in the middle grades. Data for the Middle School Intervention Project (MSIP) were collected in 25 middle schools across the state of Oregon. We…

The quality of a school's social environment is critically related to student outcomes, including academic performance, attendance, student behavior, and high school completion rates. New Hampshire engaged in a dropout prevention initiative between 2006 and 2012 that focused on implementation of the multitiered Positive Behavioral Interventions…

Each year, 20% of U.S. students drop out of high school (Balfanz, Bridgeland, Bruce, & Fox, 2013). There is an abundance of research on student behaviors from researchers who explored the process of student disengagement from school (Bowers, Sprott, & Taff, 2013; Lessard, Butler-Kisber, Fortin, Marcotte, Potvin, & Royer, 2008), however…

This publication on out-of-school-children (OOSC) in the Pacific is a timely and important contribution to consider interventions to ameliorate educational disparities in the region. A contemporary view of the nine Pacific Island Countries (PICs) that are also members of the Commonwealth are captured as distinct case studies in the publication.…

This study examined a multidimensional model of school engagement (Fredricks, Blumenfeld, & Paris, 2004) among low-income, urban Latino adolescents. Ecological theory suggests that students' school, family, and peer contexts influence their behavioral, emotional, and cognitive engagement. Using qualitative methods of inquiry, this study…

The objective of the article is to examine what is 'taken for granted' in the policies designed to combat Early School Leaving (ESL) in Catalonia, identifying their implicit ontologies, causal assumptions and logics of action. In order to do so, the realist evaluation is applied. Specifically, this methodology has been applied to compare the…

Through engaging stories and the use of students' voices, this book corrects persistent misconceptions about youth who drop out of high school. Based on research conducted with high school dropouts in both urban and rural communities, the authors argue that, contrary to popular belief, most dropouts are not disengaged from school at an early age.…

In 2014-15, the high school graduation rate reached a record high of 83 percent (U.S. Department of Education 2016). Despite the gains, over half a million students still drop out of high school each year (U.S. Department of Education 2015). High schools have adopted various strategies designed to keep students who are at risk of not graduating in…