Over the past decade, SREB state policy-makers have focused on actions to reduce dropout rates and increase high school graduation rates. Some policy-makers have suggested that raising their state's compulsory attendance age (often called the dropout age) to require students to stay in school until age 17 or 18 is an important step. However,…

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…

Many would agree on the primacy of a high quality education for social and economic health, democracy, and individual prosperity, but scarcely a week goes by that we do not hear that a quality education for all children is not possible. Intercultural Development Research Association (IDRA) and their partners are told that parents don't care;…

Every step in a student's life is important for future success. Schools are building stronger frameworks of curricula, instruction and assessments to prepare students to move from one learning environment to another with maximum results as they journey toward adulthood. This issue of "High Schools That Work" contains examples of…

The State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA) and the National Association of State Title I Directors (NASTID) drafted this paper to spark local discussions on the coordinated uses of funds to implement technology in the classroom. State and local Title I and Title IID directors can work together to ensure that these ideas are…

This Issue Brief is based on telephone interviews of 21 state policymakers to discuss the salient education issues in their states and their views on arts education. Six state senators, eight state representatives, one state board of education member, two deputy commissioners of education, three current state superintendents and one former state…

Youth Opportunities Unlimited is a summer residential program for Arkansas high school students at risk of dropping out of school. During 1989-91, 517 14- and 15-year-old students completed the program, which consisted of two academic classes, a job skills class, and paid employment during 60 days residence on a university campus. Additional…

AN EVALUATION WAS MADE OF THE USE OF SPECIAL INSTRUCTORS TO SUPPLEMENT DAY-SCHOOL INSTRUCTION IN VOCATIONAL AGRICULTURE. TRAINING IN THE SPECIALIZED AREAS OF ARC WELDING AND BLUEPRINT INTERPRETATION WAS GIVEN FOR A 6-WEEK PERIOD BY SPECIAL INSTRUCTORS TO 10 MALE STUDENTS IN THE 12TH GRADE. CLASS DISCUSSIONS, READING ASSIGNMENTS, WRITTEN AND ORAL…

The Texarkana Dropout Prevention Program is an educational innovation in which (1) a private company was placed under contract to set up special, remedial instruction in the public schools, and (2) the company was to be paid according to the results produced under a performance contract. Dorsett Educational Systems operated six rapid learning…

In this report are described some current programs aimed at dropout prevention. The report focuses on programs that appear to be yielding results and that lend themselves to adaptation by other schools. The discussion comprises (1) new approaches to dropout prevention, (2) student motivation projects, (3) work-study projects, (4) schooling for…

This document provides the necessary instructions and forms for submission of a rapid learning center performance contract proposal as part of a 4-year dropout prevention program. Contract performance proposals are to embody mathematics and/or reading, and to involve students enrolled in grades 7-12 who are two or more grade levels deficient in…

A 3-year project analyzed the Arkansas postsecondary vocational-technical education system to determine how effectively delivery was meeting the objective of providing vocational training. Two postsecondary vocational-technical schools in Northeast Arkansas were selected as pilot schools to test the innovative strategies that evolved from the…

This paper describes a Child Care/Parenting Project established to meet the needs of teen parents and parents-to-be in 19 area schools served by the West Campus Technical Center in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The presence of a licensed child care facility on the vocational high school campus helped to expand and improve the vocational education…

Estimates impact of community resource development (CRD) programs on a variety of quality of life indicators for 73 Arkansas counties that were nonmetropolitan in 1960. Results indicate that few quality of life indicators were affected in the direction intended by CRD programs. Examines substantive and methodological implications of the findings.…

This directory describes programs for serving at-risk students in rural small schools in Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. Section 1 lists 72 programs by state, including 8 programs that were added to the directory in 1995. Each entry includes target population; a brief description of program features; the school/community…