A study described the nontraditional adult students attending full-time, occupationally specific vocational training programs in Ohio. It also developed a dropout prediction model of enrolled students using sets of independent variables adapted from the Conceptual Model of Nontraditional Student Attrition and Persistence in Postsecondary…

The West Virginia University Cooperative Extension Service developed a 4-H curriculum designed to provide targeted potential school dropouts with opportunities to develop specific skills. These included decisionmaking, parliamentary procedure, group processes, public speaking, leadership, and life skills. In addition, participants would have…

The national dropout rate has remained at about 20% for the last decade. However, disparities in the definition of dropouts and in data collection have caused national dropout figures to vary. Researchers agree that students from areas of large minority populations with fewer English-speaking students, and those living in poverty are at risk of…

Efforts addressed at the pervasive school dropout problem in New York City received a boost in 1978 with the development of large scale, centrally initiated programs to reduce the number of high school dropouts. Based on the recommendations of two studies, the New York City Board of Education's Division of High Schools established outreach centers…

Comprehensive evaluations of two dropout prevention/reentry demonstration programs, sponsored by the Department of Education, one funded under the School Dropout Demonstration Assistance Program (SDDAP) and one funded under the Cooperative Demonstration Program (CDP), are provided in this paper. Both programs were designed to demonstrate effective…

Using the findings of an earlier study regarding differences between student and teacher perceptions of what circumstances might contribute to a student's being "at risk," a follow-up study investigated what teachers and other school personnel can do to help at-risk students. Based on responses to two open-ended questions from the…

Using the state-mandated Texas at-risk criteria to identify students at-risk for dropping out, the Austin (Texas) Independent School District (AISD) followed those students for three years to determine the accuracy of the mandated state criteria. The study focuses on the classification and follow-up of 25,587 students in 1987-88, 25,292 students…

Institutions of higher learning must focus on new ways to serve the at-risk student and the black male at-risk student in particular. By developing and implementing a plan, any teacher can foster retention of at-risk students, even in the absence of institutional support. Twenty effective techniques are: (1) learn students' names; (2) assign…

A support service for students at Wayne State College is described that is coordinated by the learning center and supported by a network of referrals. The target groups are students who have been placed on academic suspension or probation, the chronically absent, and those who are having difficulty with basic writing, term paper writing, test…

Transferring from one high school to another may be an important alternative to dropping out. While the public school dropout rate is over four times the dropout rate in Catholic schools, the percentages of transfer students reveal a different scenario. With transfer rates nearly three times their drop out rates, the Catholic schools' reported…

Many potential dropouts have problems coping with the formal and impersonal structure of most high schools. In response to this, an effort was made to create an alternative, more supportive, organizational structure featuring participative management in the Louisiana State Youth Opportunities Unlimited (LSYOU) program. Program teachers, tutors,…

An informal study was conducted of the courses selected by ninth grade students who later dropped out of high school. Longitudinal data were available for high school students in the Austin (Texas) Independent School District, from 1978-79 to 1982-83. The courses selected by high-risk students in ninth grade, including extracurricular activities…

Project Succeed is a program for helping failure- and dropout-oriented pupils to improve their school achievement. Attendance and assignment completion are the key behaviors for enhancing achievement. Behavior modification and communications procedures are used to bring about the desired changes. Treatment procedures include current assessment…

The multivariate approach of canonical correlation was used to assess selection procedures of the Air Force Academy. It was felt that improved student selection methods might reduce the number of dropouts while maintaining or improving the quality of graduates. The method of canonical correlation was designed to maximize prediction of academic…

Youth Opportunities Unlimited (YOU), a program operating on funds from the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA), was initiated at Arkansas State University in 1989. The 60-day program is targeted to economically disadvantaged 14- and 15-year-olds who are on grade level and have been identified as being likely to drop out of high school, but are not…