Reviews the origins and development of the 20th-century term "drop-out." Asserts that the social construction of the drop-out problem explicitly marks the time when secondary education became a common expectation in the United States. Contends that secondary education's success created the concept of a drop-out "problem." (CFR)

Reviews the European response to U.S. women's colleges. Contends that most international visitors believed that the United States was the world leader in women's rights in the latter part of the nineteenth century. Concludes that women's colleges' influence as models was limited severly by generally negative perceptions of all U. S. colleges. (CFR)