Taxonomy of dropout prevention and intervention program types¶

Theory · All theories
Evidence · 4 claims (4 for) · 1 study (1 quant-synthesis), q3 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 4 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The review organizes the dropout intervention literature into a set of program types, presented in Table 1 with descriptions and study counts. Types include "Supplemental academic services" (remedial education, tutoring, homework assistance), "School or class restructuring" (small learning communities, block schedules, career academies, small class size), college preparation, vocational training, "Attendance monitoring & financial incentives", child care services for teenage mothers, CBT or skills training, case management, mentoring/counseling, and community service programs coupled with a weekly life skills curriculum. This taxonomy structures the comparative effectiveness analyses of the meta-analysis.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Programs must be school-based, school-affiliated, or community-based psychological, educational, or behavioral prevention or intervention programs with potential beneficial effects on student recipients

Constraints¶

• The taxonomy covers programs for school-aged youth approximately ages 4-18, including recent dropouts ages 18-21 only when the program explicitly targets secondary school completion

Target Learners¶

• school-aged children and youth in preschool through 12th grade
• students at risk for dropping out, including low-SES, minority, and teenage-parent students

Target Learning Objectives¶

• increasing school completion
• reducing school dropout
• improving attendance, engagement, academic performance, and school conduct

Claims¶

• Dropout Program Type Effectiveness [+M]
• Dropout prevention and intervention programs increase the odds of school completion, with an average odds ratio of 1.63 [+M]
• Implementation quality, shorter program duration, and community-based delivery are associated with lower dropout among treated students [+M]
• Unpublished status and higher method quality are associated with smaller estimated effects of dropout programs [+M]

Related Theories¶

• School engagement as the organizing framework for dropout prevention
• Four-type taxonomy of college- and career-readiness interventions with ESSA-tier evidence

Examples¶

• Meta-analytic corpus of 130 dropout program evaluation samples

Key Sources¶

• Wilson, S. J., Tanner-Smith, E., & Lipsey, M. W. (2011). Dropout Prevention and Intervention Programs: Effects on School Completion and Dropout Among School-aged Children and Youth. 2011 SREE Conference. http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/reports/dropout/topic/#top. doi:10.4073/csr.2011.8