Individual patterns of enrolment in primary schools in the Republic of Honduras

The Reconstructed Cohort Method is often used to examine the status of national education. However, this method does not account for individual details and we know little about the status of school enrolments by tracking individual students from entrance until dropout or graduation. This study employs the True Cohort Method to analyse data for 1377 children who entered in primary schools in the Republic of Honduras between 1986 and 1994. Findings indicate that children's patterns of enrolment fall into two categories: graduation without repetition and dropout after a short period of attendance. Policy implications of these findings are discussed.     

Mind the Gap: How Students Differentially Perceive Their School's Attendance Policies in Germany

Truant student behavior can be due to various reasons. Some of these reasons are located in schools. So far, little is known about how student perception of school rules is related to truancy. This study aims to identify types of school attendance policies and how these policies are associated with individual truancy. Self-reports from the German student sample of PISA 2012 (N = 5,001) were analyzed to evaluate truancy and student perception of school attendance policies. A linear regression model was specified to predict truancy. Two styles of school attendance policies as perceived by students could be distinguished: active and passive. Students who perceived their school's attendance policy to be active were truant less often than students who thought their school's attendance policy was passive.     

The geography of school choice in a city with growing inequality: the case of Vancouver

This analysis aims to measure the impact of school choice policy on secondary school students’ enrolment patterns within the social geography of Vancouver, an increasingly polarized global city. The rationale for the study is to examine the impact of ‘education market’ reforms on the socio-economic composition of schools in a Canadian context, where a social welfare commitment to educational equality is being replaced by market-oriented policies and increasing social inequality. Our study is guided by Bourdieu’s theory of site in considering whether growing inequality and polarization of wealth in a city are correlated with the ways families choose schools. We apply a geographical methodology (Geographic Information System) to delineate spatial patterns of choosing schools. Our analysis shows that those who opt out of the under-subscribed schools come from the neighborhoods with relatively higher capital than those who remain in their assigned schools. Also, those who opt into the over-subscribed schools in the affluent areas come from the neighborhoods with above-average levels of capital in Vancouver. Overall, we find that the spatial inequality in school choice generally follows the uneven distribution of capital/wealth across the city. The pattern of student mobility indicates an increasing level of segregation.     

Preventing Student Disengagement and Keeping Students on the Graduation Path in Urban Middle-Grades Schools: Early Identification and Effective Interventions

This article considers the practical, conceptual, and empirical foundations of an early identification and intervention system for middle-grades schools to combat student disengagement and increase graduation rates in our nation's cities. Many students in urban schools become disengaged at the start of the middle grades, which greatly reduces the odds that they will eventually graduate. We use longitudinal analyses—following almost 13,000 students from 1996 until 2004—to demonstrate how four predictive indicators reflecting poor attendance, misbehavior, and course failures in sixth grade can be used to identify 60% of the students who will not graduate from high school. Fortunately, by combining effective whole-school reforms with attendance, behavioral, and extra-help interventions, graduation rates can be substantially increased.     

The effects of community factors on school participation in Turkey: A multilevel analysis

Turkey, like many developing countries, is facing considerable problems in terms of low school attendance rates, late enrolment and early dropout of girls in particular. Numerous studies have already been conducted, both in Turkey and elsewhere, to determine the factors affecting school enrolment of boys and girls. Existing studies in Turkey, however, have focused extensively on the association between household-level factors and school participation, ignoring the role of the broader environment in which children live. Using a recent, large-scale and nationally representative data set, this paper investigates school participation at both primary and secondary levels in Turkey, giving specific attention to community-level factors. In taking into account socioeconomic context variables using the multilevel modelling method, this study contributes significantly to current school participation literature in Turkey. The author’s findings highlight the importance of community/context factors in explaining low school enrolment in Turkey. The results of the study can help policy makers develop a systematic understanding of the relationship between socioeconomic context and school participation, and enable them to make more appropriate decisions for improving school participation across the country.     

Aztec Middle College: High School Alternatives in Community Colleges

The traditional high school model derived from the factory deficit model of the early 1900s has left many students, mainly minorities and/or low socioeconomic students, disenfranchised. This is evident in the poor school performance and high dropout rates of such students. Whereas the factory deficit model was created to promote only a few high school students to college, the rest of the students were trained for factory jobs. Today's job market requires that high school students go to college subsequent to their graduation. For this reason, middle college alternatives to traditional high schools are being adopted. Although research on middle colleges is limited due to their recent development, the results are encouraging: high school students who would otherwise have failed school or dropped out have high attendance rates and high graduation rates.     

How effective is parental prosecution as a method of improving school attendance among primary‐aged children?

Just under half a million children and young people in state schools in England miss school every day. Indeed, improving school attendance has remained a key aim for successive governments. Various strategies have been adopted at both national and local levels in an attempt to tackle the persistent issue of school attendance with varying degrees of success. This study explores the effectiveness of one of those strategies – that of parental prosecutions – as a means of improving children and young people's school attendance. It reports on the effectiveness of parental prosecutions while highlighting some of the emerging patterns among a cohort of those prosecuted within one local authority during one academic year.     

Japanese and American student teacher voice: A comparative study of critical incidents

This study evaluates the effect of school district size on public high school graduation rates. The study calculates the graduation rate for each graduating class in each state between 1991 and 2002 and uses a fixed-effects model to examine the relationship between these graduation rates and changes in the size of each state's school districts during that period. The analysis indicates that decreasing the average size of a state's school districts by 200 square miles leads to an increase of about 1.64 percentage points in its graduation rate. To put this result into context, if Florida decreased the size of its school districts to the national median, it would increase its graduation rate by about 4.5 percentage points.     

Everyone in school: The effects of compulsory schooling age on drop‐out and completion rates

This article analyses the effect of the Berlinguer reform that was introduced in Italy in 1999 and increased compulsory schooling from eight to nine years. Hence, students had to attend school until the age of 15 instead of 14 that was required at the time and therefore to attend at least one year of upper secondary school (for pupils with a regular career). Using data from the Labour Force Surveys (1993–2010) and applying counterfactual time series and segmented regressions, we evaluate the effect of the reform on attendance and graduation rates. The results show that prolonging compulsory education encouraged a larger share of 16‐year‐olds to stay in school, especially those who were judged more at risk with less educated parents and with parents with a low occupational status. However, at age 17, part of the effect had already vanished and no effect was found on graduation rates. The compulsory schooling policy may have been more effective in adjusting the legislation to already existing student behaviour than in producing relevant changes in educational decisions.     

Markets in education: the impact of school choice policies in one market context in New Zealand

The publication of Trading in Futures and When Schools Compete helped give empirical support to the view that choice policies increased differences between schools. However, dispute about this research and changes in policy mean that our understanding of the impact of school choice policies in New Zealand remains partial. This paper aims to address continued uncertainty about the impact of school choice policies in New Zealand. It presents the results of a study that drew upon qualitative data gathered in interviews with school principals and on administrative data on the enrolment patterns in the same competition space explored by the Trading in Futures research. The data show that periods of greatest instability in enrolments occurred around the time of change in regulations.     

A strategic approach to tackling school absenteeism and truancy: the PSCC scheme

This paper focuses upon a long-term strategic approach to tackling school absenteeism and truancy within secondary schools. It utilises a tiered colour-coded concept to monitor the progress of pupils within the groups and subsequently take the appropriate action. The PSCC scheme combines attainment and attendance data collected from pupils' primary schools with monitoring and enhancement strategies within the secondary school. The scheme enables schools to tackle their long-term absentees and erratic attenders as well as those who have learning and/or special needs. Over a five-year period, properly implemented, the scheme has the potential to help to transform the prevailing culture within low attendance schools. The PSCC model utilises school change strategies in a dynamic manner in order to improve the attendance, behaviour and learning support needs of pupils which, in turn, can help to raise standards and attainment levels. It can also help to improve parents' attitudes towards their children's school. Finally, it provides a managerial focal point for staff to combat pupils' absence utilising a whole school approach.     

Behavioral Assessment of Coping Strategies in Young Children At-risk,Developmentally Delayed,and Typically Developing

Research Findings: This study investigated the effects of full- and half-day kindergarten programs on classroom instructional quality and children's academic achievement. Considerations were given for how the length of the school day, language status (English language learner [ELL] and non-ELL), and children's attendance patterns influenced achievement. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected concurrently and were interpreted to note the convergence (or lack thereof) of the findings. Quantitative results revealed no difference in the quality of instruction being offered in full- and half-day classrooms. Additionally, full-day kindergarten positively impacted children's academic achievement in literacy but not in mathematics, regardless of children's language status. In regard to language development, ELL children benefited more from full-day kindergarten than did their English-speaking peers, whereas all (ELL and non-ELL) children enrolled in full-day kindergarten made greater language gains when they missed fewer than 10 school days. Practice or Policy: Findings from this study have significant policy and practice implications related to the overall quality, availability, and cultural and developmental appropriateness of kindergarten programming in the United States.     

The Social Space of Educational Strategies: Exploring Patterns of Enrolment,Efficiency and Completion among Swedish Students in Undergraduate Programmes with Professional Qualifications

The aim of the study was to analyse enrolment patterns, and study efficiency and completion among students in programmes with professional qualifications, using microdata from Statistics Sweden. The programmes were Architecture, Medicine, Nursing, Law, Social work, Psychology, andEngineering (year 2001–2002,n?=?15,918). Using the concepts from Bourdieu’s sociology, data was analysed with Specific Multiple Correspondence Analysis. Different patterns emerged and were constructed as different dimensions of the social space of educational strategies in higher education, patterns of enrolment, efficiency, and completion. The students’ relative positions in the social structure were analysed by the type and amount of their cultural capital. The most important factors for differences between coherent intensive and scattered extensive enrolment patterns were programmes, gender, mother’s socioeconomic index, parents’ education, and type of university. Regarding efficiency, the most important factors were programme and type of university. The factors most important for graduation were gender and type of university.     

Understanding Barriers and Solutions Affecting Preschool Attendance in Low-Income Families

ABSTRACT

Preschool attendance problems negatively impact children's school readiness skills and future school attendance. Parents are critical to preschoolers’ attendance. This study explored parental barriers and solutions to preschool attendance in low-income families. School-district administrative data from a racially/ethnically diverse sample of parents with children attending the district's half-day preschool program were obtained (N = 111). Subsamples of parents participated in a phone interview and follow-up, in-person interview. Parents valued early learning and preschool. Children missed school due to illness, problems with child care, transportation, and family life. Differences in attendance rates appeared by school, family demographics, and race/ethnicity. African-Americans and Hispanics experienced more barriers than Whites and Asians, and were more likely to miss school because of illness and medical appointments. Hispanics were more likely to miss for vacation. Parents noted a lack of social connection with other parents in the school/neighborhood, making seeking help to resolve attendance barriers difficult.     

Structural Adjustment and Gender Access to Education in Nigeria

ABSTRACT The article reports on relative gender access to secondary (grammar) school education from 1977 to 1990 in Imo State, Nigeria. To this end, time series data on secondary (grammar) school enrolment in Imo State from 1977/78 to 1989/90 were analysed. The findings are: (i) the existence of a gender imbalance in access to grammar school education in which the participation rate for girls was less than 40% up to 1980/81. This is discussed with reference to the prevalence of a gender-biased tradition which restricts girls' access to education; (ii) the dramatic overturning of the gender enrolment imbalance, in favour of girls, from 1981/82 when girls' participation rate in secondary education reached a peak of 56%. This is attributed to the nationwide implementation of a 6-year programme of free and compulsory Universal Primary Education (UPE) in Nigeria from 1976. The free and compulsory UPE scheme (which removed the traditional constraints on female education)had the immediateeffect of causing a phenomenal growth in primary school enrolment that was paralleled in the secondary sector in 1981/82; and (iii) the decline in access to grammar school education, more marked for girls than for boys, since 1986 when free market reform structural adjustment policies (SAP) prescribed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank were introduced in Nigeria. The SAP was accompanied by enormous financial and economic hardship which militate against access to education for the majority of poor Nigerians and for girls in particular. These findings are consistent with reported findings elsewhere in 'adjusting' countries. It is concluded that the financial rigours of the structural adjustments that havebeen imposed on such countries militate against the United Nations Children's Fund and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation commitments to the elimination of all policies that hinder gender access to education in Africa and the global vision of education for all by the year 2000.     

Building bridges to life after high school: Contemporary career academies and student outcomes

Career academies serve an increasingly wide range of students. This paper examines the contemporary profile of students entering career academies in a large, diverse school district and estimates causal effects of participation in one of the district's well-regarded academies on a range of high school and college outcomes. Exploiting the lottery-based admissions process of this technology-focused academy, we find that academy enrollment increases the likelihood of high school graduation by about 8 percentage points and boosts rates of college enrollment for males but not females. Analysis of intermediate outcomes suggests that effects on attendance and industry-relevant certification at least partially mediate the overall high school graduation effect.     

Supplemental Instruction: Understanding Academic Assistance in Underrepresented Groups

Student retention rates are increasingly important in higher education. Higher education institutions have adopted various programs in the hopes of increasing graduation rates and grade point averages (GPAs). One of the most effective attempts at improvement has been the Supplemental Instruction (SI) program. We examined our SI program relative to three facets: attendance, attendance's influence on final scores, and graduation rates for students who had participated in these courses. These questions were also investigated focusing on specific comparison groups, as we looked into how these effects differed for minority students and nontraditional students compared with those of White and traditional peers. Overall, SI attendance led to positive outcomes— increased final course grades and graduation rates—even after adjusting for previous achievement.     

Changes in parental involvement in secondary education: An exploration study using the longitudinal study of young people in England

Empirical research on parental involvement in children's education often makes the assumption that levels of involvement remain fixed over time. This paper highlights evidence from a longitudinal study that half of parents of young people in Year 9 reported becoming more or less involved in their child's school life over a two‐year period and explores the characteristics associated with mothers and fathers that change their levels of involvement. The young person's attitude to school, the mother's relationship with the school, attendance at parents’ evenings and the mother's ethnicity, qualifications and change in economic status had the strongest associations with a reported change in maternal involvement levels. Changes in paternal involvement were strongly associated with the father's ethnicity and the young person's behaviour.     

Parental expectations of children’s higher education participation in Australia

The role of parental expectations in determining children's higher education participation is important in understanding both participation and potential policy responses. Using a nationally representative longitudinal survey of Australian households, providing repeat observations on expectations for individual children, this study extends the literature in several respects. First, it examines the adaptation of parental expectations over a 4-year time frame. Second, it looks at how parental expectations for school children are associated with actual higher education outcomes in the future. Third, the longitudinal aspect of the dataset permits more robust analyses of factors that shape parental expectations. The findings indicate that parental expectations of their children's attendance at university are generally stable across time. Perceptions of children's academic achievement at school are shown to be the key influence in shaping parents' expectations, and behavioural issues at school adversely affect expectations. Australian parents from non-English-speaking backgrounds were more likely to form positive expectations of university participation by their children, consistent with studies from other countries. A more nuanced picture of the formation of expectations for sole-parent mothers is also presented. Positive effects of parental education and children's enrolment in a private school on parents' expectations, over and above any effect on school achievement, highlight these socioeconomic factors as potential causal channels for the intergenerational transmission of socioeconomic outcomes.     

Gender discrimination and education in West Africa: strategies for maintaining girls in school

Girls’ enrolment in primary schools has achieved significant increase and parity with male enrolment in many countries in Africa since the 1960s. Some of these countries include Botswana, Namibia and Tanzania. However, in most Sub‐Saharan African countries, female enrolment still lags behind male enrolment. This paper examines some of the reasons for the persistent gender gap between females and males in the three African countries of Ghana, Nigeria and Togo within the West Africa sub‐region. It discusses gender relations, cultural practices such as early marriage, child slavery, and child fostering/trafficking, poverty and multiple household duties for girls as some of the contributing factors. It is argued that unless these cultural beliefs and attitudes are changed and mandatory measures such as holding parents accountable and responsible are put in place, gender parity and quality education for all, especially for females, will not be achieved in Africa. A number of additional strategies for improvement in school attendance and retention for females are also discussed.