This document was prepared to aid Rhode Island schools in dealing with youth at risk of school failure. It defines at-risk students as young people who in danger of not completing school and notes that in Rhode Island over 25% of students who enter school fail to graduate from high school. It stresses the need for schools and communities to focus…

This guidebook is part of a series of program materials for a school-based intervention process to help at-risk students stay in school. It is intended for participating adults and begins by giving them a quick look at the extent of the dropout problem nationwide. The booklet goes on to provide a discussion of the basic steps of the helping…

This guidebook is part of a series of program materials for a school-based intervention process to help at-risk students stay in school. An introduction sets forth the responsibilities of the adminstrator/planner. The rest of the booklet contains suggestions for ways to carry out the administrator/planner role creatively and effectively. The…

This booklet for dropout prevention program coordinators is part of a series of program materials for a school-based intervention process to help at-risk students stay in school. An introduction lists the qualities a good program coordinator must have or will need to develop as well as the specific tasks a program coordinator must do to make the…

A concerted effort to pool resources and coordinate work by federal, state, and local educational agencies will be necessary to overcome the fragmentation that is occurring due to the current climate of changing demographics, increasing illiteracy, and the social effects of minorities in our schools. California has shown major changes in the…

A study assessed the effectiveness of various ways of identifying at-risk middle school students for participation in a dropout prevention program. It was considered important to explore factors related to identifying students who were most in need of the program. During the first semester of the project, teacher recommendations, attendance, age,…

This formative evaluation of the Atlantic Street Center's Pre-Teen Bridge Program (P-T Bridge) focused on the academic support and prosocial skill development components of the program. The academic component included one-on-one tutoring, and the prosocial skill component included activities and materials designed to improve social and…

Vocational education has a significant role to play in dropout prevention because studies show a positive correlation between involvement in vocational education and school completion. Students involved in vocational education are more likely to be involved in school-sponsored activities that help them shape goals for themselves and the future.…

This paper examines the potential influence of school reform policies on the high school dropout rate. We summarize a diverse set of reports on American education which recommend increasing academic standards in schools as a means for improving secondary school performance. We also describe our understanding of the processes by which youngsters…

The Alternative Co-operative Education Program (ACE program) of the Peel Board of Education in Ontario, Canada is a program implemented to address the needs of students who were leaving the school system before graduation. The objectives of the ACE program are to provide at-risk students with the opportunity to combine in-school and out-of-school…

The costly supplemental or alternative programs that combat chronic school failure and continued high dropout rates are not always effective for the following reasons: (1) students do not always find out which programs are available, and (2) if no suitable program is available, there is usually no one responsible for trying to create one. People…

In 1979 a program was initiated at the Georges Valley High School in Thomaston, Maine, to identify high risk students who would be likely to drop out of high school and then to design and implement a program for ninth grade students that would motivate them to stay in school. A subsequent review of the impact of the program on its participants…

The Fresh Start Minischool (FSMS) program was implemented for students at Frank Ballou High School in Washington, D.C., who had mathematics and reading deficiencies that made success and staying in school unlikely possibilities. The program involved individualized student instruction in four core academic areas (social studies, communications,…

Suggests ways that community colleges can improve the first-semester experiences of high-risk students, including block-programing students into learning communities, teaching basic skills across the curriculum, and linking students' jobs with learning experiences. (DMM)

This article is a review of what we know about the at-risk population. It evaluates the benefits of public funding for college opportunities compared to the benefits for needy students who want to get a job. Suggests that the federal government should invest in high-risk youth now to help them become contributors to the economy rather than a cost.…