This study evaluates the Youth Development Program (YDP), a component of the federal Workforce Investment Act (WIA). We examine whether the YDP reduced dropout rates among youth in secondary schools in seven school districts in the impoverished Mississippi River Delta in southeast Arkansas. Initially, the program seems to have an impact. Students…

In this longitudinal study, we investigated the role of word reading and mathematical difficulties measured in 9th grade as factors for receiving educational support for learning in upper secondary education in Grades 10 to 12 (from ages 16 to 19) and furthermore as predictors of dropout from upper secondary education within 5 years after…

Our nation's K-12 schools are faced with numerous critical challenges that affect student achievement and consequently impact society. Key challenges, such as elevating academic achievement, meeting state and No Child Left Behind (NCLB) standards, high dropout rates, at-risk students, parental involvement, and the recruitment and retention of…

An intervention program was implemented to reduce absences, stimulate responsibility for assignments, and increase participation in extracurricular activities among disengaged ninth-grade students (N=18). Older students served as role models and peer mentors as they sought to establish that freshmen could control their own success or failure in…

The experimental Vocational Exploration in the Private Sector (VEPS-I) program, 1971-72 was intended to provide dropout-prone Neighborhood Youth Corps (NYC) youth with intensive counseling, supportive services and work experience in the private sector, to encourage completion of high school, and to assist in obtaining full-time employment upon…