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Copyright of Revista Foco (Interdisciplinary Studies Journal) is the property of Revista Foco and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Since the 1980s, low male enrollment in secondary schools has been observed in Anambra State in southeast Nigeria. Previous studies largely attribute the phenomenon to a masculine drive toward the quick accumulation of material wealth. This article draws on two primary qualitative studies conducted in the state in 2012 and 2020 and on Bourdieu's notion of habitus to discuss how the local construction of masculinity and social expectations influence boys' aspirations and preferences and contribute to their decision to drop out of high school. Participants were both males and females who dropped out of school of high school or who did not enroll in high school before entering the workforce. While economic factors are central to males' disengagement from school, they are underpinned by demands and pressures associated with the social construction of masculinity. Material wealth is seen as a symbol of a man's beauty (nma nwoke). Policy and intervention programmes are needed to mitigate societal pressures on boys in Anambra State. Keywords: boys' education, culture and education, gender equality in education, habitus, masculinity, Nigeria, societal pressure, The title of one of the 2018 Global Education Monitoring Report background papers was 'Achieving Gender Equality in Education: Don't Forget the Boys.' The paper highlights the prevailing concentration of [...]

The article discusses the relationship between school leadership styles (transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire) on the four types on organizational culture based on the Quinn Cameron model (Clan, Adhocracy, Market and Hierarchy) in high schools with a high rate of academic achievement of their students. The mix of leadership styles used by school principals and the organizational culture profile of the schools are closely related leading to the conclusion that there is a synergy between them which is explaining the high rate of academic success. The researchers used a mixed research method, qualitative based on interviews with various important school stakeholders and a questionnaire based survey of 162 teachers from 8 high schools from the Haifa district, in Israel. Conclusions and several recommendations were made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on data use and school Early Warning Systems (EWS) notes a central practice of researchers and practitioners is to search for patterns in student data to predict outcomes so schools can support success when students experience challenges. Yet, the domain lacks a means to visualize the rich longitudinal data that schools collect. Here, we use visual data analytic hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) heatmaps to pattern and visualize entire longitudinal grading histories of a national sample of n=14,290 students from grade 9 to college in every enrolled subject and year, visualizing 6,728,920 individual datapoints. We provide both the open access code in R and an open-access online tool allowing anyone to upload their data and create a HCA heatmap, providing support for visual data analytic and data science practice for both education researchers and schooling organizations. Keywords: cluster analysis, heatmap, early warning indicator, early warning system, data use, education data mining, education data science, visual data analytics, longitudinal data, grades, dropout, high school, post-secondary, degree, STEM, Purpose and Background The world outside is itself the greatest storehouse of knowledge. Human reason, drawing upon the pattern and redundancy of nature, can predict some of the consequences of [...]

Introduction: The aim of the study was to test the hypothesis that young people with perceived parental alcohol problems have higher dropout rates in high school and lower grade point average (GPA) at graduation compared to young people without perceived parental alcohol problems. Methods: Data come from Danish National Youth Study 2014 (n = 62,171), merged with register‐data on later dropout of high school and GPA. Multilevel Poisson regression models of incidence rates of dropout and multilevel linear models of GPA were used to assess the association with perceived parental alcohol problems. Results: A total of 6.6% of the students perceived their parent(s) to have alcohol problems. Young people with perceived parental alcohol problems had higher dropout rate (girls incidence rate ratio 1.83; 95% confidence interval [1.62–2.06]); boys (incidence rate ratio 1.38; 95% confidence interval [1.17–1.64]) and lower grades (GPA: −0.24; 95% confidence interval [−0.32; −0.17]) compared to those without. There was no statistically significant difference between mother's and fathers' alcohol problems in the associations with dropout and GPA. Discussion and Conclusions: Perceived parental alcohol problems were associated with higher incidence rate ratio of dropout and lower grades within all categories of the socioeconomic factors. Our results show that young people with perceived parental alcohol problems have higher high school dropout rates and lower grades compared to those without perceived parental alcohol problems across gender and socioeconomic position. The results call for evidence‐based interventions to support young people with parental alcohol problems in the educational system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although persisters now represent the largest group of non-graduating high school students, they have received little attention in the research literature, leaving unanswered the question of how persisters differ from dropouts in terms of demographic characteristics, academic preparation, and key life outcomes. Using statewide linked-administrative education and labor market data, we applied multilevel modeling to examine the differences in demographic and academic characteristics between persisters and late (Year 4) dropouts. We identified several student- (i.e., race, special education participation, previous dropout, standardized test scores, on-track status, and attendance) and school- (i.e., school type, school size) level characteristics that related to the odds of persisting and dropping out in students' fourth year of high school. Additionally, we used a descriptive approach and data visualization to illustrate the near-term academic, postsecondary enrollment, and labor market pathways of 4-year non-graduates. Our findings highlight the unique characteristics and outcomes of persisting non-graduates and underscore an enhanced understanding of non-graduation through examining both persisting students and dropouts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dropping out of high school creates barriers to economic self-sufficiency. Career and technical education (CTE) may help students engage with school by showing the connection between school and work. Prior research has shown that high school CTE participation promotes positive academic outcomes including high school graduation. This paper uses a quasi-experimental design to examine the association between certifications and on-time high school graduation. Our findings indicate that certifications exert a meaningful influence on the likelihood of high school graduation, and that the effect is stronger for students who are at risk for dropping out or are economically disadvantaged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revue des Sciences de l'Education is the property of Revue des Sciences de l'Education and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Motivation for Educational Attainment (MEA) questionnaire, developed to assess facets related to early adolescents' motivation to complete high school, has a bifactor structure with a large general factor and three smaller orthogonal specific factors (teacher expectations, peer aspirations, value of education). This prospective validity study investigated the utility of each factor in predicting high school dropout or completion of a general education development (GED) certificate versus completion of a high school degree. Participants were 474 (55.1% male) ethnically diverse students who were originally recruited into a larger longitudinal study in Grade 1 on the basis of academic risk. Fourteen years later, 373 had obtained a high school diploma, 15 had obtained a GED, and 86 had dropped out of high school. During their first year of Grade 9, participants were administered the MEA. Using multinomial logistic regression with high school graduation as the reference outcome and controlling for Grade 9 letter grades, reading and math test scores, gender, and ethnic/racial group status, scores on the latent general factor and the latent peer aspirations factor predicted high school dropout versus high school graduation status. Neither the general factor nor any of the three specific factors predicted GED completion versus high school graduation. Ethnicity, but not gender, moderated the associations between scores on the general factor and high school graduation versus dropout. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]