This guide explores ways that schools can put the idea of integrating educational and community support for dropout prevention to work in the school and community. Part 1, "Implementing a Plan for Restructuring the School," recommends the formation of a task force to involve the community and school staff from the start. It also describes the…

This book collects articles that examine the patterns of dropping out evident among American youth, and the policies developed and implemented to reduce the incidence of dropping out. The following chapters (and their authors) are included: (1) Introduction (G. Natriello); (2) Can We Help Dropouts? Thinking about the Undoable (D. Mann); (3) Large…

This report presents the Academic Retention and Talent Retrieval components of the Special Services Program at Northern Illinois University. The support structures are described in detail, including: CHANCE counseling, which assists students with academic and financial planning, personal growth, peer tutoring, and career counseling; and the Talent…

This report reviews the research literature from 1975-1983 on potential secondary school dropouts and strategies for effective dropout prevention programs. The information provided is intended to help communities in modifying and/or constructing treatment programs for potential dropouts. The report is divided into three sections. In the first…

Operation Success is a pilot project funded by the New York State Education Department to provide support services to high school dropouts and potential dropouts. It offers programs, including employment programs, intended to develop skills, self-awareness and self-direction, enourage career goals, and develop appropriate attitudes toward the…

A project was designed to identify student needs contributing to high vocational technical school dropout rates and to develop strategies for effective rate reduction. Project staff objectives were to (1) identify problems impeding potential dropouts from training success, (2) alleviate potential dropouts' critical needs, (3) implement meaningful…

Designed as an alternative program to reduce absenteeism in four high schools in the Bronx, a career education and academic upgrading experiment placed sixty ninth graders in a special area of Bronx Community College. The students, recruited from among disadvantaged potential dropouts (mostly blacks and Hispanics), attended half-day sessions at…

Two aids used in the identification of potential dropouts are examined. The Mink Scale (a teacher-rated scale) is based on classification of social, psychological, and educational forces related to dropout proneness: (1) academic ability and performance, (2) negative identification with education, (3) family and socioeconomic status, and (4)…

The data in this report comes from the 1972 Consolidated Program Information Report (CPIR) designed to provide statistical information about federal educational aid programs at the local level. These data focus on the characteristics of the children who participate, the total staff involved, and all expenditures incurred in the operation of…

The Mink Scale is designed to differentiate between potential dropout and non-dropout students at the junior high school level. Items of the scale represent social, psychological, and educational factors established in previous dropout studies. A pilot study in five Appalachian counties compared scale responses for 189 (dropouts) former students…

Guidance strategies play an important role in reintegrating young people who have dropped out of the formal education, training, and employment system and must include support for nonformal guidance agents in the community. A European program has explored three strategies for linking formal and nonformal guidance structures to provide social…

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…

Social work practice in public schools is challenged by the rising poverty, homelessness, dropout rates, and delinquency of students. This increasingly diverse and disadvantaged student population is currently converging with more punitive and rigid public schools. Presents multicultural-diversity education as a promising approach that is…

Describes the school choice program and its implementation in Minnesota. The Post-Secondary Options program offers public high school students the chance to take courses in other high schools or colleges. The High School Graduation Incentive Program helps students work out their educational problems and graduate from high school. (JB)

South Carolina's Occupational Education delivery system made progress in achieving the 3-year goals contained in the Two-Year State Plan for Vocational-Technical Education, FY 1995-96, especially through its continued implementation of tech prep. Workshops provided technical assistance related to standards and measures. The system consisted of 242…