Substance use and abuse are problematic in the lives of adolescents, including interpersonal problems and scholastic problems. Risk for substance use has commonly been assessed at the individual level. This paper examines risk of adolescent substance abuse as a variable impacted by environmental or contextual factors surrounding the individual.…

The purpose of this study was to investigate differences in high school completion rates among White, African American, and Hispanic students enrolled in different school sizes--small, medium, and large. For this causal-comparative research design, this study utilized archival data from the Texas Education Association's Academic Excellence…

Truancy is an important issue facing U.S. school systems as it is known that students who are truant are more likely to participate in criminal activity later in life (Baker, Sigmon & Nugent, 2001; Henry & Thornberry, 2010). This study examines recent data from students at 21 schools within a large midwestern school district. Survival…

In this study, we extend research on stereotype threat to adolescents and to school belonging. Stereotype threat refers to the impact of societal stereotypes on individual performance. Participants included adolescents from marginalized racial/ethnic minority groups including African Americans, American Indians, and Latinos and nonmarginalized…

Prior research has suggested private school education in middle school and high school as a solution for the Black-White achievement gap. However, more recent research calls this solution into question. Additionally, research increasingly implicates third grade as being of preeminent importance in driving students' subsequent academic achievement.…

Presents data on dropout rates and number and distribution of adolescents/young adults who were dropouts, noting background characteristics (sex, race/ethnicity, age, recency of immigration, and region) for October 1998. Data are provided on status dropout rate, number status dropouts, total population age 16-24 years, percent of all dropouts, and…

Interviewed high school students to determine whether teachers used instructional strategies that students believed helped them master new materials, noting whether the match between learning style and instructional format differed depending on student gender and race/ethnicity. Male Latinos reported more mismatches between learning and teaching…

Surveyed 1,339 adolescent students from low-to-moderate income homes regarding three curricular issues in an urban high school. The diverse student population thought that the school should promote cultural understanding and make a commitment to society, and also to prepare students for work. Ethnic and gender differences were found. (MMU)

This chart describes high school completion rates for the United States for 18- through 24-year olds not currently enrolled in high school or lower grades. The 85.3% completion rate represented 77.9% of students with a diploma and 7.4% with an alternative completion. Completion rates are given by gender, race/ethnicity, family income, and…

Studied how differences in race, gender, and academic ability affected students' use of computers and attitudes toward computers. Results with 73 suburban fifth graders show that computer technologies were less available to students who did not do well with traditional approaches, in spite of the interest traditionally disadvantaged students…