High school dropout, enrollment, and graduation rates are important indicators of students' college and career readiness, which in turn significantly impact both individual income levels and the overall knowledge-driven economy. Despite the long-term benefits of a high school education, much of the current literature on raising school…

What distinguishes high schools that "beat the odds" for students from traditionally lower-performing groups from schools that struggle to improve the achievement and graduation rates of these student populations? What types of programs, practices, and processes support better than expected outcomes for students at risk of failure? How…

A growing body of research shows school connectedness to be a powerful predictor of adolescent health and academic outcomes. This study advances a theoretically grounded definition of school connectedness and triangulates qualitative and quantitative methods to assess contextual correlates to school connectedness in 8th, 10th, and 12th grade…

Examined 10th-grade data from the 1988 National Educational Longitudinal Study to investigate the effects of school uniforms on student attendance, behavior problems, substance use, and academic achievement. Data from public, private, and Catholic schools indicated that uniforms had no direct effect on substance use, attendance, or behavior, and a…

Growth during the last 2 years of high school was examined in public and Catholic high schools using data from the High School and Beyond database--a large, nationally representative study. Earlier research was extended by considering: (1) affective variables (e.g., self-concept, locus of control), academic choices (e.g., course selection), and…