This article offers an exploration of the Asian Pacific American (APA) ethnic groups that show high rates of departure, and presents strategies and approaches to improving their persistence and graduation rates. A detailed examination of the APA population is presented to identify the subgroups that are underrepresented in higher education and who…

Late school entry prevails in many developing countries, and a brief international comparison suggests it has a general negative impact on school retention rates. Yet this widespread phenomenon has received little attention. This essay investigates late school entry in one of the larger countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Mozambique, for which data…

This policy brief examines several questions regarding the impact of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) on students with disabilities, including: What are the benefits of the law? What are the unintended consequences? Does NCLB conflict with the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA)? In addition, the author conducted an…

Findings of a study that examined the relationship between school climate and student persistence are presented in this paper. Two surveys were administered to teachers and students at 10 Austin, Texas, high schools. Three factors of school climate were investigated--teachers as professionals, goals for student learning, and school discipline and…

Although it is being taken in greater numbers and by increasingly younger people, the General Education Development (GED) test is viewed skeptically by the military, college admission officials, and some employers. The public perception of the GED tends to give it second-class status compared to a high school diploma. However, studies of GED…

Results of a study of students enrolling at Germanna Community College (GCC) between fall 1981 and fall 1986 to compare the persistence and graduation rates of transfer and occupational-technical students are presented in this document. The study was limited to full-time, first-time students with a declared major. Major findings of the study are…

To examine local dropout trends the Oklahoma City Public Schools (OCPS) documented the numbers and described the characteristics of those who dropped out in the 1985-86 school year. Local dropout rates were compared to those of other school districts and the nation as a whole. A dropout was defined as any student who is under age 18 and has not…

This paper provides a synthesis of research and theory directly related to retention of adult students. In the first of five major sections, readers are provided with a brief discussion of the nature and significance of the dropout-retention problem. Section 2 reviews research findings relating to who drops out and why. Sociodemographic,…

This report describes a project in New York State which used extended and improved guidance services to lower the school dropout rate. The project was conducted by the State Bureau of Guidance between 1954 and 1960 in cooperation with 89 secondary schools. Specifically discussed are project findings concerning school holding power rates. Factors…

In this fourteenth annual report in the series of bulletins on the holding power and graduates of Kentucky public and nonpublic high schools, an overview of a 10-year period (1959-1969) is presented in addition to the usual analysis of data for the graduating class of 1969. Comparative data are presented on the holding power of Kentucky schools,…

Recent data in a longitudinal study are examined for insights into the retention patterns of institutions, characteristics of students who persist or drop out, and student satisfaction with the college experience. (MSE)

Many studies have identified factors that contribute to success in economics principles courses, but few have examined the causes and effects of student drops and failure. The author follows 239 students through their economic principles course and tracks the students in the year after the course. The author constructs a model predicting student…

Whether the dropout rate is a good measure of a quality education is debatable. One could probably make a case that a high dropout rate is just as credible an indicator of a quality education program as a low dropout rate. As with any high-stakes measure of performance, those being evaluated scramble, sometimes frantically, for strategies that…

This study reports one-year dropout rates for Arizona school districts. Dropouts were counted on an 12-month basis from the end of the 1992-93 school year to the end of the 1993-94 school year. The total state enrollment covered in this study was 322,525 students in grades 7 through 12. There were 3,567 dropouts from the elementary grades (7 and…

Over the past decade, retention studies at Hudson County Community College (HCCC), in New Jersey, have consistently placed the college at or near the bottom of a group of 19 New Jersey community colleges in terms of retention. In an effort to determine why students were leaving and develop responses to student attrition, a presidential task force…