Despite all of the celebratory rhetoric around our nation's declining dropout rates, during a given year, nearly 20 percent of students expected to graduate do not. Furthermore, according to Johns Hopkins University and Civic Enterprises, "unacceptably low levels of minority, low-income, English Language Learners, and special education…

This paper explores a new tool for instructional designers. By calculating and graphing the Student Momentum Indicator (M) for 196 university-level online courses and by employing the constant comparative method within the grounded theory framework, eight distinct graph shapes emerged as meaningful categories of dropout behavior. Several of the…

Theories suggest curricular tracking is linked to racial/ethnic inequality. However, prior studies largely examine cognitive outcomes like standardized test scores and neglect behavioral outcomes. They also overlook potential racial/ethnic differences "within" curricular tracks. This study asks the following questions: (a) Is curricular…

With increasing access to Brazilian higher education comes increasing dropout rates in both licentiate and non-licentiate undergraduate programs. This paper reports on a comparative study of licentiate and non-licentiate undergraduate programs that enrolled students who either had or did not have a University Program for All (ProUni) scholarship.…

In 2009 the Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA) published "Charter School Success or Selective Out-Migration of Low-Achievers? The Effects of Enrollment Management on Student Achievement." The report profiles Boston's high-performing charter high schools and middle schools and calculates attrition rates for individual schools…

High stakes testing is an increasingly powerful force in education with curricular decisions as one of the many factors influenced by this trend. A large number of districts and school leaders feel an increase in curriculum time for tested areas is the answer to America's academic shortcomings. The increase in instructional time for tested areas,…

The high dropout rate of the United States Virgin Islands school district's ninth-grade students is a major educational problem and the catalyst for a myriad of social problems. Ninth grade academies and extended school day intervention programs have benefited only the academically prepared students. This qualitative case study examined educators'…

The National Technical Assistance Center on Transition's (NTACT) purpose is to assist State Education Agencies, Local Education Agencies, State VR agencies, and VR service providers in implementing evidence-based and promising practices ensuring students with disabilities, including those with significant disabilities, graduate prepared for…

First-generation (FG) students are generally less likely than their continuing-generation (CG) peers to persist and complete a degree. Using student data available at initial enrollment, this multi-institutional study examines retention and transfer at the second year in relation to academic readiness, financial resources, college intentions,…

The State Compensatory Education (SCE) program is designed to reduce dropout rates and increase academic performance of students identified as being at-risk of dropping out of school. SCE operates as a funding source to supplement instructional services and offer academic support to students who meet the SCE at-risk criteria established by the…

In the early 1990s, the Supreme Court established standards to facilitate the release of school districts from racial desegregation orders. Over the next two decades, federal courts declared almost half of all districts under court order in 1991 to be "unitary"--that is, to have met their obligations to eliminate dual systems of…

The Kentucky Board of Education is currently considering changes to Kentucky's high school graduation requirement policy to address concerns that Kentucky students are not graduating with the skills necessary to ensure their success after high school. A key component of this policy change would require students to pass a high school exit exam…

In Greece, Roma pupils often experience segregation through educational settings, high dropout rates, low performance outcomes, and higher levels of non-completion when compared to their Greek (non-Roma) peers. However, a small minority do stay in school and proceed to higher education. This paper draws on a set of in-depth interviews with twenty…

Aim/Purpose: This study introduced a new teaching and learning approach based on an ADRI (Approach, Deployment, Result, Improvement) model in an introductory programming (IP) course. The effectiveness of the new teaching and learning process was determined by collecting feedback from the IP instructors and by analyzing the final exam grades of the…

This paper examines the effect of the introduction of an academic dismissal (AD) policy (i.e. an intervention, which can lead to compulsory student withdrawal) on student dropout, student graduation rates and satisfaction with the study program. Using a difference-in-differences type of estimator, we compare programs that introduced an AD policy…