A decline in high school dropout rates of students with learning disabilities (SWLDs) has been reported in the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI). Of the2 school districts in the USVI, St. STT/STJ and STX, the researcher examined high school experiences of SWLDs who dropped out and did not attain a high school diploma in STX. Utilizing the conceptual framework of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, participants' personal high school experiences were examined in an effort to understand factors leading to their choice to drop out. The researcher interviewed 12 participants who were drop out SWLDs, ages 18 years and older. Interview data were coded and analyzed for common themes. Member checking and peer debriefing were utilized to achieve credibility and trustworthiness. Data analysis resulted in the identification of patterns, or themes, relative to participants' STX high school experiences which contributed to their decisions to drop out. The themes included, peer, family and teacher lack of support, ridicule, peer pressure and behavior problems. Most of the participants had not reached Maslow's highest need for self-actualization. Maslow purported that if needs are not being fulfilled in homes, then they can be fulfilled in schools where a positive school culture is apparent. In this case, students with learning disabilities needed to feel there was value in their education and obtaining a high school diploma. The results of this research might contribute to positive social change by identifying SWLDs' need requirements to attain a high school diploma and provide high school administrators with valuable information to enhance school learning environments for SWLDs and increase high school SWLD graduation rates.

This study was conducted to analyze the performance differences between alternative education campuses in Texas that used teacher-directed strategies and those that used self-directed strategies. The study was also conducted to inform educators of the results these two strategies had achieved with at-risk students during the three years of 2006-2008. The study used the results from the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills test as reported in the AEIS annual reports from the Texas Education Agency. Alternative education schools were grouped according to the strategy used to educate at-risk students. The results of the statistical tests showed the two strategies had similar performance results and there was no statistical difference between the two. The results offered several implications concerning the ability of at-risk students to achieve in alternative education schools including possible reasons why students who were previously unsuccessful became successful in alternative settings. The report also addressed the number of students who continued to be unsuccessful even when placed on an alternative education campus. Possible reasons for this continued inability to succeed are discussed. Recommendations for further research were listed at the conclusion of the study.

This study of approximately 50 early school drop-outs is an effort to find out why so many boys and firls leave school before they complete their high school course. We need to know the basic reason that prompt their decisions, not the superficial excuses that appear on many school records. The study was undertaken in the belief that when the causes are understood, they can be remedied through measures to provide adequate programs of student aid. If it is because of lack of interest in school, this, too, can be remedied through changes in school programs to make them mean more to more students. A country which has developed its industrial production and its scientific research to heights that would have seemd incredible 25 years ago, surely has the resrouces and the vision to create educational programs which will meet the varied needs, aptituteds, and interests of its many millions of children and young people. A democracy cannot be content with its public education system until all its children enter high school and until the number who graduate from high school approaches 100 per cent of those who enter.

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The problems with which this dissertation is concerned are undergraduate student attrition and ways to reduce it. This study describes the problem of undergraduate student attrition by presenting an overview of the extent of such attrition. As a result of this study, the following conclusions, among others, are advanced: 1) Approximately 50 per cent of those who undertake a baccalaureate degree program complete their programs within four years. 2) Attrition data provide a measure of efficiency of higher education. 3) Undergraduates who do not complete course or degree requirements in either attendance or academic performance contribute to and constitute a measure of waste in the economic sense of (a) the labor of teachers, (b) the use of classrooms, laboratories, and equipment, (c) the failure of colleges and universities to achieve educational objectives, and (d) the competent individuals who never enter college. 4) Attrition is a distinct, interactive process. 5) Institutions of higher learning are responsible for changing their characteristics and environments when such variables adversely affect congruence of otherwise qualified and competent students. 6) Texas' senior college presidents who were surveyed believe that an extremely important variable in reducing attrition is the establishment of a relationship between the student and the institution through a competent, concerned faculty or staff member or peer.

Children are dropping out of sport at alarming rates. With the highest numbers of dropout occurring between the ages of ten and seventeen, the focus of this research is on the drop-out rates of adolescents from sport. Athletic participation has been linked to positive academic performance, key development of leadership skills, and increased engagement in the community. The research that has been conducted related to sport persistence has had a greater focus on examining factors related to the physical domain. Attention is now beginning to shift however, and researchers are looking outside the physical domain and analyzing sport attrition more through sociological and psychological domains. The purpose of this research is to conduct a literary analysis on the psychological factors that impact the drop-out rate of adolescents from sport with adolescents being defined as children between the ages of ten and seventeen. Research in this domain is fairly limited; however numerous psychological theories have recently emerged as framework for conducting research as it relates to participation and drop-out in adolescent sports. These include self-determination theory, basic needs theory, achievement goal theory, and leisure constraints theory. The developmental model of sport participation is also a tool that is widely used to study sport persistence and drop-out. Foundationally based on psychology, this literature analysis was constructed to explore drop-out factors related to adolescent sport with the intent to collect data that either supports or disputes the relational connections between sport attrition or persistence. These relationships include but are not limited to the athlete/athlete, athlete/coach, athlete/parent, and athlete/self.

The purpose of this mixed-methods case study was to examine teachers’ beliefs toward in-grade retention in a K-2 school. This study focused on how teachers acquire beliefs regarding grade retention, and their knowledge of research regarding the effectiveness of retention. Witmer, Hoffman and Nottis (2004) contend that teacher beliefs toward grade retention may not be based on research, but on peer influence, past practice, or administrative policy. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected to examine teacher beliefs in a K- 2 school. Quantitative data were collected through the Teacher Opinion Survey (TOS) and Personal Experiences and Retention Practices (PERP). A total of ten K-2 teachers volunteered to complete the survey instruments. Additionally, six K-2 teachers and the school principal were interviewed to collect qualitative data. Data were analyzed to triangulate the findings. This study concluded that teachers continue to retain students as a remedy for academic failure, contrary to what some researchers like Shepard and Smith (1989), who decried that schools were continuing the practice of retention despite research findings that indicated little or no academic achievement is gained though retention. Findings further indicated that teachers disagreed that retention failed to improve achievement, failed to inspire students to buckle down and behave better, and failed to develop students’ social adjustment and self-concept.

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The purpose of the study was to increase knowledge about youth football in relation to reasons for beginning to participate, and reasons behind early drop-out. Another purpose of the study was to investigate potential preventive methods in order to counterwork drop-out rates among boys. A district association of Swedish football, Västerbottens Fotbollförbund, was keen to discover these reasons and preventive methods in order to develop more interest throughout their football-district and prevent early drop-out rates among boys. The study was designed using a questionnaire in which 27 boys aged13-17 in Skellefteå municipality answered a questionnaire with open-ended questions regarding the purpose of the study. The results indicate that the opportunity to participate in more than one sport is problematic and that the boys valued belonging and team spirit. Furthermore, the boys proposedcreating sustainable opportunities to participate in more than one sport and to focus more on having fun during practice in order to counter-work drop-out rates. A conclusion drawn from the results of the study is that the different sports within Skellefteå municipality are in need of better cooperation. Another conclusion is that the boys expressed a desire for more and different levels of ambition to reduce drop-out rates. Creating different prioritization within the different levels of ambition was alsosuggested by the boys themselves. For example, to prioritize belonging and having fun in clubs with lower levels of ambition. To counterwork early drop-out rates there needs to be conditions making it possible to participate in more than one sport. Furthermore, clubs from different sports in the municipality are proposed to discuss the topic of drop-out and preventive measures suggested by the boys in the study.