High school graduation has long been recognized as an important turning point to young adulthood, opening up the doors for future vocational and economic activities. In Washington State, students with disabilities still drop out at rates that are significantly higher than their peers, hampering their ability to achieve this graduation milestone.…

Teacher education attrition is a largely understudied topic, especially from the perspective of the college student. What factors prevented education majors from graduating with a teaching degree? There are countless studies about teacher attrition within the first five years in the classroom (DeAngelis et al., 2013; Kopkowski, 2008; Office of…

A Midwest community college's culinary arts program is experiencing a trending decline in student persistence to degree completion rates year after year. Low persistence to degree completion rates impacts post-traditional students, this community college, and employers. This research is needed, as this and other community colleges could inform…

This applied dissertation was designed to describe and explain the dropout phenomenon occurring in a rural high school in southeastern North Carolina. Caucasian students were dropping out at a disproportionate rate compared to other ethnic groups in the school. Over the last 4 years, 68 students did not graduate with their prospective class at the…

Schools face the dilemma of transforming both the trend of students dropping out of school and the associated negative socioeconomic outcomes into a positive path of persistence and school completion. Despite ongoing efforts of the federal and state government, as well as those of the local school districts, this problem continues to burden the…

This sequential, three-phase study used quantitative analyses to examine the characteristics of student dropouts and the characteristics of schools successful and unsuccessful in mediating dropouts. Narrative profiles were created to describe types of students and types of dropouts. Phase I consisted of three parts, each using the student as the…