This report examines enrollment history, achievement gaps, and persistence in school for ELL students and reclassified ELL students as compared to non-ELL students. The study uses statewide individual-level data sets merged from students' entry to exit in the state's public school system for graduate cohorts of 2006, 2007, and 2008. Analytic…

Although online learning is expanding in availability and popularity, the high dropout rates remain a challenging problem. In this paper, we reviewed the existing empirical studies on online course dropouts in post-secondary education that were published during the last 10 years. We identified 69 factors that influence students' decisions to…

Recently the state of Missouri, through the Missouri Department of Higher Education, has started to work toward the goal of having 60 percent of state residents hold some type of postsecondary credential. This goal aligns with similar initiatives in other states as well as President Obama's objective for the nation. In order to reach this…

The present study was carried out to determine the motivating factors for enrolling in an engineering study programme in open and distance learning (ODL) and the factors that affect the students' performance. The study was conducted with two convenient samples of students following distance learning courses in engineering technology, conducted by…

In a time when graduation rates are showing notable improvement among students of color and students with disabilities, there are still great challenges that remain. The National Dropout Prevention Center for Students with Disabilities has published a monograph that explores the problem of high school dropout rates among American Indian, African…

Public education in the United States struggles to prepare all students for success in post-secondary education and careers. One reason attributed to dropouts, student-disconnect, and low levels of achievement is that too many students attend large, impersonal schools where they are not engaged in learning. Many policy makers view the…

This article sought to identify factors related to high school completion rates and college enrollment among Hispanic students. Hispanic students were found to have high attrition rates in institutions of higher education. Implications for the development and implementation of retention programs for Hispanic high school students, such as…

One of the main intentions of the comprehensive higher education reform in Norway in 2003 was to improve student performance and completion. One way of doing this is to reduce the number of students leaving an institution. Institutions have limited options for reducing student departure, and one of the few routes open to them is changing the…

An increasingly popular, but underresearched, initiative aimed at reducing high school dropout is raising the compulsory school attendance age. This study used a national data set from academic years 2001-02 to 2005-06 to examine the grade level at which students drop out, rates of dropout over time, and high school completion by state, region of…

What keeps students engaged in high school? Persisting to high school graduation is becoming more difficult for many students with the increased rigor of American high school graduation requirements. While many factors that contribute to students not completing high school have been explored, and while many interventions have been developed to…

High numbers of dropouts can be found throughout the country, but research has shown the problem to be most prevalent in minority communities. Although the majority of dropouts were Anglo, the highest event dropout rates were found among American Indians, Hispanics and African Americans. This descriptive study investigated how students negotiate…

This report uses statistics to examine current conditions and changes over time in education activities and outcomes for different racial/ethnic groups in the United States. This report shows that over time, students in the racial/ethnic groups of White, Black, Hispanic, Asian, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, American Indian/Alaska…

Even as the number of students attending college has more than doubled in the past forty years, it is still the case that nearly half of all college students in the United States will not complete their degree within six years. It is clear that much remains to be done toward improving student success. For more than twenty years, Vincent Tinto's…

High school dropouts fare substantially worse than their peers on a wide variety of long-term economic outcomes. On average, a dropout earns less money, is more likely to be in jail, is less healthy, is less likely to be married, and is unhappier than a high school graduate. But despite this growing education gap, dropout rates have remained…

"Indigenous" college students in both Canada and the United States have the lowest rates of obtaining postsecondary degrees, and their postsecondary dropout rates are higher than for any other minority (Freeman & Fox, 2005; Mendelson, 2004; Reddy, 1993). There has been very little research done to uncover possible reasons for such…