This resource handbook was developed to provide constituent school district personnel with a variety of strategies for improving student attendance and for reducing the dropout rate. A significant number of studies completed during the last 5 years have identified attendance as the critical issue confronting school administrators. Further, recent…

To furnish constituent school district personnel with a number of alternative educational programs for reducing the dropout rate, this resource handbook was published by the Oakland Schools (Michigan) Department of Pupil Personnel Services. Provided within this second handbook discussing various strategies for improving student attendance and for…

A study was conducted at William Rainey Harper College (WRHC) to develop a profile of students who withdrew from courses between summer 1986 and spring 1988 and to compare this profile with the results of a 1982-1986 withdrawal study. For the past 4 years, each degree credit student who has officially withdrawn from a course has been asked to…

This report is the result of taped interviews with 115 Alaskan teenage women who have dropped out of "regular" public school. Two results of the study stand out: first, the majority of the students wanted a diploma, but nonetheless felt compelled to drop out; second (the reason most girls gave for dropping out): no one cared. However,…

In the last 10 years community college enrollments have leveled off, bringing a new urgency to institutional efforts to retain current students. Obstacles to academic persistence include external factors such as insufficient funds, work demands, social demands, family obligations, housing or transportation problems; and internal problems such as…

The study provides an overview of what national surveys and the literature say about school dropouts, defined as persons who are neither enrolled in school nor high school graduates. For the last decade, the dropout rate for youth age 16-24 has remained roughly the same, about 13-14 percent. Hispanics, Blacks, and economically and educationally…

Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) analyzes graduation and attrition rates of the 1982 graduating class from the district's 49 regular high schools as well as from continuation, opportunity, special education, and alternative and magnet schools. Graduates are senior high school students who earned a diploma, or passed the California High…

A study was conducted in the San Bernardino Community College District to discover why some students who were enrolled in the spring 1984 semester did not reenroll in the fall 1984 semester; and to determine to what extent the new enrollment fee affected students' ability to enroll. A sample of 1,011 students was randomly selected from the target…

In spite of difficulties in analyzing student retention in community college programs and courses, certain facts about student attrition are known. First, students who drop out of class or school tend to have lower grades than students who persist. Second, the ability of students to drop in and out of community colleges at will has negative…

A study was conducted at Harford Community College (HCC) to assess the effects of a recently implemented set of more stringent academic standards. The new policies included placing students on academic restriction (i.e., restricting the number of units they may take) if their quality point index fell below a certain level. The study sought…

In an effort to form baseline data and information on the activity of learners participating in courses offered by Athabasca University, an individual learner tracking study was initiated. A random selection of 38 learners submitted weekly forms indicating their level of activity in courses, their motivational level, and the amount of contact they…

As part of a continuing program of monitoring the number of student withdrawals and tuition refunds at William Rainey Harper College, students dropping courses during fall 1980 were surveyed to determine their characteristics and reasons for withdrawal. Students who simply stopped attending courses were not included in the study. The survey…

A survey was conducted by North Shore Community College during 1979 to determine the reasons why students in the Division of Continuing Education drop out of college. During the survey, a randomly selected sample of the 1,706 continuing education students who had been enrolled during Fall 1978 but who did not reenroll in Spring 1979 were asked to…

In Spring 1980, a study was conducted at Mercer County Community College (MCCC) to determine selected information about students who indicated during Fall semester registration that they intended to return the following Spring, but who failed to do so. One aspect of the study involved a comparison of returning and non-returning students with…

Dropout rates were investigated with a special emphasis on comparing loan users with users of other forms of aid. Differences in dropout rates for students in the following groups were analyzed: loans only, loans in combination with other aid, other aid only, and aid from families only. Using analysis of variance the following variables were…