In 2010, the authors shared a Civic Marshall Plan to create a Grad Nation. Through that first report and subsequent update, they saw hopeful signs of progress in boosting high school graduation rates in communities across the country. This 2012 report shows that high school graduation rates continue to improve nationally and across many states and…

This 2012 report shows that high school graduation rates continue to improve nationally and across many states and school districts, with 12 states accounting for the majority of new graduates over the last decade. Tennessee and New York continue to lead the nation with double-digit gains in high school graduation rates over the same period. The…

This paper evaluates the impact on student achievement made by eight New York City alternative high schools. The schools serve students with histories of poor attendance and low academic achievement, so an emphasis is placed, in the first section of this report, on findings which reveal students' credit accumulation and attendance patterns in…

Behind the negative composite profile of school dropouts often lie the internalized characteristics of low self-esteem, thwarted ambition, and personal failure. This document presents an analysis of several different demographic, behavioral, and academic characteristics of students who withdrew from grades 9, 10, 11, and 12 in the Nashville…

A longitudinal analysis of students who entered New York City high schools in 1979 supports the perception that most future dropouts can be identified at the beginning of their high school careers. This study examined the records of more than a quarter of the 1979 entering class at New York City high schools. Analyses were performed on attendance,…

New York's Dropout Prevention Initiative (DPI) is examined from the perspective of Dewey's educational philosophy. DPI employs an approach which "blames the victim" in contrast to the Deweyan approach which considers the social organization of schools as critical. Three components of DPI are critiqued: attendance incentives, career…

This report describes an evaluation of Project Success, a dropout prevention program at Crockett High School in Austin (Texas). The class centered program provided incentives for improved educational performance and attendance of at-risk ninth-grade students in the 1990-91 school year. The project served 103 students over the fall 1990 and spring…

Transferring from one high school to another may be an important alternative to dropping out. While the public school dropout rate is over four times the dropout rate in Catholic schools, the percentages of transfer students reveal a different scenario. With transfer rates nearly three times their drop out rates, the Catholic schools' reported…

This book offers profiles of 30 high school students at Oak Park and River Forest (OPRF) High School, in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, Illinois. Located in a neighborhood characterized by great disparity among residents' incomes, the school is one of the country's premier secondary schools. The book was written by the school dean, who taught a…

This report presents findings from a 5-year study of the impact of educational reform on Texas students who are in situations that put them at risk of school failure or dropping out. Data were derived from three sources: a statewide survey of high school principals; a longitudinal analysis that tracked 1,800 at-risk high school students from…

This report, compiled by the North Carolina State Board of Education's Office for Dropout Prevention, provides dropout data, reasons for students' dropping out of school, and approaches for keeping students in school until successful completion of their education. Facts and figures for dropout rates of high school and the extended day school…

Ohio's Learning, Earning, and Parenting Program (LEAP) provides all teen parents who receive welfare with a substantial financial incentive to attend school. This is the fifth and annual report from a large-scale evaluation of the program, based on a study of 4,151 teenagers who were randomly assigned to either a program group or a control group.…

Project Achieve Transition Services (PATS) is a four-year high school attendance improvement, dropout prevention project which targets late-entry students consisting primarily of immigrants, transfers, and long-term absentees. The program uses a case management approach to provide support services, instructional enhancements, and family outreach…

City-as-School (CAS) is a New York City Board of Education independent alternative high school whose primary curriculum objective is to link students with hundreds of learning experiences throughout the community. Students receive academic credit for each learning experience successfully completed. Credit is determined by the nature of the…

Reducing absences is the most readily available strategy that high schools have for reducing the number of dropouts. A sample of approximately 2,000 students who entered three Oregon urban high schools in the Fall of 1983 or 1984 was studied in order to establish criteria for identifying students who were at-risk of not graduating. The group was…