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The need to lessen the dropout rate for America’s high schools necessitated a search for answers by examining the impact of athletic participation on at-risk high school students. Research supports the contention that benefits athletics for students at-risk of dropping out. However, the majority of empirical research on athletic participation has been conducted on athletes and non-athletes, leaving a gap in regard to at-risk students. The study provides a comparison between athletic participation and non-participation with at-risk students. The goal of this study was to share the findings of an investigation of the impact of athletic participation on at-risk high school students’ academic performance. The academic performances included: standardized assessments, attendance, behavior, and dropout rate. This study sought to compare the criterion-referenced scores of at-risk athletes and at-risk non-athletes, as well as the GPA scores, attendance rates, number of disciplinary referrals, and the dropout rate of the 2 categories of students, using non-experimental research. The major findings of this study revealed that more at-risk non-athletes dropped out of school than at-risk athletes.

The problem of this study was to determine the relationship between dropout rates of the high schools of Arkansas and certain school practices.

The JROTC program is one of service and commitment. Its mission is to build better citizens and give them a sense of pride in service to their fellow man. Today these core principles are still needed, but with the increase in the student dropout rate, the JROTC program can be one of many alternatives needed to help public education reach today's youth who are struggling to stay in school. The purpose of this mixed methods study was to examine the impact of the Air Force JROTC Leadership Program on the grade point average (GPA), attendance rate, disciplinary referrals, and dropout rate of JROTC students at an urban high school in southeastern Virginia. The study also addressed the perceptions of school administrators, Air Force JROTC instructors, teachers, JROTC students and their parents on students enrolled in the program during the 2005-2009 school years. Descriptive statistics were used to determine the means, standard deviations and frequency distributions for the groups in the study. Three independent sample t-tests and seven one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA's) were used to determine where there was a statistically significant difference for each group. The Tukey post hoc procedure was used to determine where the difference occurred in the variables. There were three major findings revealed in this study. The first finding indicated that students who participated in the JROTC program had lower grade point averages (M =2.47, SD = 1.17) than non-JROTC participants (M = 3.00, SD = 0.94). Second, administrators had higher levels of agreement (100%) than AFJROTC instructors, teachers, JROTC students and parents that leadership skills were developed in the AFJROTC program. Third, JROTC students (12%) and parents (7%) had lower levels of agreement than administrators, AFJROTC instructors and teachers that the AFJROTC program is used as a recruitment tool. Focus groups results showed strong support for the program from administrators, teachers, JROTC students and parents. These findings suggest that if school districts and educational leaders are to benefit from implementing the AFJROTC program they must understand that the program is not designed to impact academics. The program is designed to develop leadership skills along with helping students become better citizens. Educational leaders in school districts should read the findings and consider utilizing the program as a possible alternative to help students to develop skills to keep them from dropping out of school. / Ph. D.

Thesis advisor: Robert J. Starratt / A qualitative case study of three high schools was conducted to identify and profile school practices employed in educating a traditionally low-achieving subpopulation in northeast India. By the considerably higher than average retention and graduation rates among their students who come from indigenous tribal communities, these schools stand out as effective. The study was centered on the following research questions: 1) What were the teaching practices that characterize three high schools with successful records of graduating (upwards of 100%) indigenous Northeast India tribal students? 2) How were these successful schools affected by the school leadership? A body of related literature provided the theoretical rationale and informed the researcher in collecting data, doing analysis, and processing interpretation. The researcher reviewed specific categories of literature focused on the following: dropout influences, effective teaching practices, school leadership, indigenous tribal life contexts, spirituality, and worldview of the peoples of Northeast India. The findings indicated that these three schools with low dropout rates reflected authentic and effective teaching practices that were student-friendly and based on a coherent mix of various principles of learning, instructional strategies, classroom management, and the personal dedication of the teaching faculties. Furthermore, the schools tried to create an atmosphere of social connectedness and community, based on the values of the indigenous people of that area. The school leadership was proactive in an effort to sustain the sense of community through a variety of school activities and cooperation with parents. The researcher found that the ethos of the schools motivated students to focus on their studies in view of a better economic future. A contextualized pedagogy that took into account the background and learning styles of a wide variety of students helped the students to focus on their learning in the various academic disciplines. Pedagogical practices that promoted academic achievement in concert with indigenous values sustained the interest of the students and moved them to actively involve themselves in the life of the school. The leadership provided the necessary vision and direction to make the objectives and goals of the school understood and obtainable. The visible presence of the principal and his/her affirming interaction also helped to maintain the motivation of the community on all levels of operation. The findings of this research have implications for educational practice, policy, teacher preparation and school leadership in the context of rural India. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2009. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Administration and Higher Education.

Essa dissertação explora o aumento da retenção escolar, introduzido pela mudança da forma de organização escolar de ciclos para séries. Por meio do método de diferenças em diferenças e usando um desenho de avaliação da política diferente de trabalhos similares, apresentamos os efeitos agregados e dinâmicos da maior retenção sobre o desempenho escolar, taxa de aprovação e taxa de abandono para as escolas públicas urbanas do Ensino Fundamental Regular do Brasil. As estimativas para desempenho mostram uma queda na proficiência de matemática e língua portuguesa para 4ª séries e 8ª séries. As estimativas do efeito dinâmico apresentam maiores no curto prazo para 4ª séries, enquanto para 8ª séries os efeitos maiores foram no longo prazo. Também ocorre uma queda da aprovação e aumento da taxa de abandono para ambas às séries. Concluímos que o retorno ao sistema de séries parece não ter sido uma boa estratégia para essas escolas. / This dissertation explores the increasing school retention, introduced by changing the form of school organization of cycles for series. Through the method of difference in differences and using an evaluation design of policy different from similar studies, we present the aggregate and dynamic effects of the increased of retention on school performance, promotion and dropout rate for urban public schools of Basic Education in Brazil. The estimates show a drop in performance achievement in math and achievement reading for 4th grade and 8th grade. Estimates of the dynamic effect present higher in the short term to 4th grade while for 8th grade were the largest effects in the long run. There is also a drop in promotion and rising dropout rate for both the series. We conclude that the return to the series system seems to have not been a good strategy for these schools.

This dissertation is a qualitative case study of a program where binational program established by the University of Texas to lower the Hispanic high school dropout rate in the United States. The Language Learners at the University of Texas at Austin Center for Hispanic Achievement (LUCHA) program is the focus of this dissertation. The LUCHA program serves immigrant Hispanic students who account for 34% of the 45% Hispanic dropout rate reported by NCES. The theoretical framework employed included the theories of cultural and social capital and the theory of caring to answer the following questions: 1) What challenges had to be met in order to initiate and develop the LUCHA program, a binational education program to combat the high dropout rate among Latino immigrants?, and 2) What can be learned from the implementation and practice of the LUCHA program in school districts with almost identical, homogenous population, and different levels of success with the program. Data was collected in Mexico and the United States and included participants involved in the program at different levels ranging form political involvement in Mexico to immigrant students in South Texas Valley school districts where the program started operations in 2006. The researcher was a participant in this study. The innovative ideas developed and instituted to reduce the Hispanic dropout rate included equipping schools with essential/core and English as a Second Language courses produced in Mexico, validating prior high school credits students had from Mexico through a transcript analysis service, obtaining Mexican transcripts for immigrant students who could not deliver them to schools, and diagnostic tests produced in Mexico for immigrant students with interrupted schooling. These services and their delivery were modified and adapted to meet the changing needs and graduation requirements of students and the educational bureaucracy in the U.S. This study brings to light the skills sets, assumptions, and characteristics of people needed to create binational agreements of cooperation. This research suggests that the perception of caring (Noddings, 1984) of educational agents in schools and school districts influences the level of success of the program in schools with almost identical populations. / text

Essa dissertação explora o aumento da retenção escolar, introduzido pela mudança da forma de organização escolar de ciclos para séries. Por meio do método de diferenças em diferenças e usando um desenho de avaliação da política diferente de trabalhos similares, apresentamos os efeitos agregados e dinâmicos da maior retenção sobre o desempenho escolar, taxa de aprovação e taxa de abandono para as escolas públicas urbanas do Ensino Fundamental Regular do Brasil. As estimativas para desempenho mostram uma queda na proficiência de matemática e língua portuguesa para 4ª séries e 8ª séries. As estimativas do efeito dinâmico apresentam maiores no curto prazo para 4ª séries, enquanto para 8ª séries os efeitos maiores foram no longo prazo. Também ocorre uma queda da aprovação e aumento da taxa de abandono para ambas às séries. Concluímos que o retorno ao sistema de séries parece não ter sido uma boa estratégia para essas escolas. / This dissertation explores the increasing school retention, introduced by changing the form of school organization of cycles for series. Through the method of difference in differences and using an evaluation design of policy different from similar studies, we present the aggregate and dynamic effects of the increased of retention on school performance, promotion and dropout rate for urban public schools of Basic Education in Brazil. The estimates show a drop in performance achievement in math and achievement reading for 4th grade and 8th grade. Estimates of the dynamic effect present higher in the short term to 4th grade while for 8th grade were the largest effects in the long run. There is also a drop in promotion and rising dropout rate for both the series. We conclude that the return to the series system seems to have not been a good strategy for these schools.

Article 334 of the Constitution of India (1950) stipulates that certain electoral districts in each state should be reserved for minority groups, namely the “Scheduled Caste”(SC) and the Scheduled Tribe”(ST), through the reservation of seats in the states' legislative assemblies. Even though the original article stated that the reservation policy would be in place for just twenty years, it has been amended several times and is still in effect. This dissertation examines the impact of the policy on the education and health outcomes of the SC population. Variations in seat quotas are generated by the timing of elections in different states and the states’ fluctuating SC populations. The first paper on education uses data from 25 Indian States and 3 Union Territories for the years 1990-2011 to form a panel dataset to estimate the impact of the quota system on both enrollment and dropout rates among SC students in all levels of schooling. I use the fixed effect regression to test the mechanisms through which an elected SC legislator could have an influence on the education outcomes for the SC population in the represented state. I then use the resulting variables as my controls to identify the causal relationship using the dynamic panel data model. I find that a SC legislator has the potential to influence the number of schools built, as well as the amount of education and welfare expenditure allocated to the SC population. Moreover, I find that the SC political reservation has a positive and statistically significant impact on the SC enrollment rates and a negative and significant impact on the dropout rates, in all levels of schooling. Likewise, I use the NFHS-3 dataset and the Cox Proportional Hazard Model to estimate the hazard rates (risks of dying) of children under the age of 12 months (IMR) and under the age of 60 months (U5MR) as influenced by different SC quota share quintiles. I find that the 50-60% quota-share quintile has the biggest impact in reducing the IMR and U5MR among the SC children.

The main aim of the study was to investigate change of programmes of study at University of the Western Cape (UWC). This involved examining the extent, nature and possible range of factors which shape change of programmes. The factors influencing choice to study at UWC and choice of programmes formed the background for understanding the link between choice and change of programmes. The study focused on first-time entering undergraduates in selected faculties: Arts, Economics and Management Sciences (EMS) and Community and Health Sciences (CHS). The progression “pathways” of these students were tracked from first year of enrolment in 2001 to 2004. The findings of the longitudinal data showed that the percentage of students who changed their programmes in the Faculty of Arts and in CHS was very minimal. In total 5% changed their programmes in CHS in three-year programmes while in four-year programmes only 2% changed their programmes. In the Faculty of Arts in three-year and four-year programmes change of programmes ranged from 6% to 10%. The significant change of programmes of study happened in EMS which also had the highest enrolments. In total 18% of the students changed their programmes. It appeared from the statistical data that failure and academic exclusion could be associated with change of programmes of study. Other factors such as financial problems, poor grouping of courses, exploring and changing to preferred programmes as well came out from the interviews as major influences of change of programmes.