States and districts are under increasing pressure to ensure all students complete high school in four years; however, many students who fall off-track on the way to graduation take longer than the traditional four years to earn a high school diploma or its equivalent. Unfortunately, those schools and districts serving overage, under-credit…

This publication is a series of in-depth case studies to examine how three programs which serve a disconnected youth population are utilizing data as a tool for continuous program improvement and ongoing accountability. The report features the following programs: (1) Roca, an organization in Massachusetts which engages the highest-risk youth in…

Too many students in high-poverty, urban communities drop out of high school, and too few graduate prepared for college and careers. Three national organizations--Talent Development Secondary, City Year, and Communities In Schools--have formed "Diplomas Now" in an effort to transform urban secondary schools so fewer students drop out and…

In the spring of 1988 the South Carolina exit examination will be administered for the first time to determine if tenth-grade students will receive a regular diploma when they graduate from high school. School districts will be required by the Education Improvement Act to provide remediation to students who do not pass the exit examination, and…

In 1985-86 two major attendance improvement/dropout prevention programs were initiated in selected New York City middle and high schools with attendance rates below the citywide median. The following year, a limited number of elementary schools were added to the program making a total of 36 high schools, 98 middle schools, and 5 elementary…

In the spring of 1979 and again in 1984, middle school and high school students who were participants in the Title I/Chapter 1 secondary school reading program in the Albuquerque Public Schools (NM), their parents, and regular classroom teachers completed questionnaires which helped provide information on their perceptions of the effectiveness of…

Investigates the informal curriculum of a state-funded after-school dropout prevention program for adolescents. The program's goal is to resocialize them into their schools and enable them to achieve academic success. The paper proposes that the program fails to achieve its goal because of its ideology, and it recommends an alternative perspective…

Researchers investigated whether enrollment in high school vocational/business courses had more holding power than personal, social factors, using High School and Beyond survey data to examine 12 variables. Peer interest, sense of social belonging, and relationships with school staff differentially related to persistence, but participation in…

A study representing a new level of involvement in the problem of dropout prevention is presented. The point is made that a dropout generally is a person who does not see his public education as related to his particular needs or goals. Recommendations of the study are: (1) Establish a regularized school-community input and feedback system to…

This survey gathered information on programs at institutions of higher education that are designed to increase the access of educationally or economically disadvantaged elementary and secondary students to higher education. In addition the study aimed to compare Upward Bound, one prominent federally funded program, with others around the nation.…

The 1987-88 Home-School-Community Agents (HSCA) Project of the Columbus (Ohio) Public Schools met its goal of improving the attitudes of 50 percent of the disruptive students enrolled in the project toward teachers, education, and school behavior. Nineteen HSCAs served in 8 high schools and 11 middle schools. Each HSCA worked on an in-depth basis…