The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA) of 2004 established a requirement that all states develop and submit to the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) a performance plan designed to improve the educational and functional outcomes for children with disabilities. The state plan must…

Because of a 50% drop-out rate of first-year to second-year students at Mountain Empire Community College, retention was identified as a priority. Students and faculty were surveyed to determine causes of student withdrawals, a summer retreat was held, and a retention task force was created to develop a comprehensive retention plan for the fall of…

Since 1975, the Student Flow Project of the Hawaii community colleges, an ongoing longitudinal study, has examined the progress of students through the community college system. It complements enrollment data with information on non-continuing students and graduates. The Project consists of three basic components: (1) admissions, which deals with…

A study of a random sample of 220 male inmates at New York State's Sing Sing Correctional Facility was conducted in the summer of 1989. Questionnaires were distributed directly to the inmates. A questionnaire in Spanish was administered when appropriate. It was found that 79 percent were high school dropouts, including 78 percent of the black…

A survey of all New Mexico public schools with students enrolled in grade nine or higher gathered data on the extent and nature of the school dropout problem during the 1986-87 school year. All 88 New Mexico school districts and 100% of the 146 schools surveyed provided information on grade, sex, ethnicity, and reason for dropping out for students…

This final report describes the activities and accomplishments of a 3-year study on the compensatory effectiveness of three assistive technologies, optical character recognition, speech synthesis, and speech recognition, on postsecondary students (N=140) with learning disabilities. These technologies were investigated relative to: (1) immediate…

A survey was conducted of students who left John Tyler Community College (JTCC) after one or more quarters of attendance. The purposes of the study were to establish the students' primary goals for enrolling, evaluate whether their goals were achieved, identify the reasons for their withdrawal, ascertain their current activities, and determine…

This project studied the impact of Minimum Competency Tests (MCT) on the educational careers of secondary students. The educational experiences of those students passing the MCT were compared with the experiences of those students not passing the MCT. The study compared three categories of students (learning handicapped, educationally marginal,…

A follow-up survey was conducted in St. Cloud, Minnesota, of 127 (from a total of 357 students) former special education students who left school between 1988 and 1992. Respondents, most of whom completed the survey by phone, were predominantly male (69 percent), and most (63 percent) had been classified as learning disabled, with 29 percent…

In 1988, a study was conducted at John Tyler Community College (JTCC) to investigate patterns in student retention during the 1987-88 academic year. A survey was mailed to 124 full-time and 237 part-time students who enrolled in the fall quarter but did not return for the winter or spring quarters. Study findings, based on a 50% response rate,…

A study was done by student researchers of Latino high school students' perspectives on the Latino dropout problem. Four large, zoned high schools with few selective programs and with substantial numbers of Latinos (23 percent to 43 percent) were selected. Two of these high schools had high and two had low Latino dropout rates. Approximately 60…

A two-phase study examined the incidence and nature of dropout and progression from basic skills programs in England and Wales. During the first (retrospective) phase, data about 1,920 students' attendance/dropout patterns and reasons' for finishing/leaving their basic skills programs were obtained from 82 tutors (of more than 300 contacted) in 8…

Grade retention data were collected from the Campbell River, British Columbia schools to determine the prevalence of retention and its effect on school completion. An extensive survey was administered to 52 parents and 204 educators to assess attitudes towards grade retention. Individual interviews were conducted with eight teachers from various…

Student attrition rates and retention efforts in the California State University and Colleges (CSUC) are summarized to assist policymakers and planners. Extensive supplementary materials are also provided, including four questionnaires, campus statistics, and worksheets for predicting withdrawal. Summaries for the 19 campuses of CSUC provide an…

This second interim report presents evaluation results from Project Youth Experiencing Success (YES) and documents a decrease in the Virginia statewide event-dropout rate in grades 7 through 12 from 4.8 percent during the 1988-89 school year to 3.3 percent during the 1991-92 year. Event-dropout rates measure the proportion of students who drop out…