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Introduction: Worldwide, more children than before survive preterm birth. Preterm birth can affect long‐term cognitive outcomes. The aim of our study was to investigate the association between preterm birth and academic performance and intelligence in youth. Material and methods: This cohort study included all liveborn children in Denmark from 1978 to 2000. We used uni‐ and multivariable logistic and linear regressions to analyze associations between gestational age and school graduation, grade point average (GPA), attending conscription, and male intelligence scores at conscription. We adjusted for a priori defined potential confounders. Results: The study included 1 450 681 children and found an association between preterm birth and lower academic performance, with children born extremely preterm having the lowest odds of graduating from lower‐ and upper secondary education (LSE and USE) and appearing before the conscription board (odds ratios of 0.45 [0.38–0.54], 0.52 [0.46–0.59], and 0.47 [0.39–0.56] for LSE, USE, and conscription, respectively, compared to the term group). Statistically significant differences were observed in LSE for total GPA and core subject GPA with higher GPAs in the term group, which were considered clinically relevant for mathematics with a 0.71 higher grade point for the term compared to the extremely preterm. Conversely, USE differences were less evident, and in linear regression models we found that preterm birth was associated with higher GPAs in the adjusted analyses; however, this was not statistically significant. We demonstrated statistically significant differences in intelligence scores at conscription with lower scores in the three preterm groups (−5.13, −2.73, and − 0.76, respectively) compared to the term group. Conclusions: Low gestational age at birth was associated with not graduating from LSE and USE, achieving lower GPAs in LSE, not attending conscription, and lower intelligence scores in young adulthood. The findings remained significant after adjusting for potential confounders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to determine the factors relating to school dropout from the perspective of dropout students, their teachers, and their parents. It also explores students' experiences after school dropout. To this end, in this qualitative study, five young adults who dropped out of middle or high school and their parents and teachers were interviewed. The study found the factors related to school dropout included adjustment problems at the individual level; family, teachers, and economy at the microsystem level; and gender at the macrosystem level. While students, teachers, and parents generally agreed on economic conditions, they had different views about family impact and teacher impact. The study also determined that individuals dropping out of school cannot enter the labor market due to school dropout or have to work in low-status jobs; they regret dropping out; and they think that they would have had a better life if they had not left school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: This study investigates the causes of school failure in two public secondary schools in Padrón (A Coruña, Galicia, Spain) measures programs and policies implemented for reduction. Method: To address the problem of school failure in the centers studied, with an evaluation study mixed methodological approach is designed. In this design the three main objectives of the LOGSE are measured: 1) compulsory education, 2) equity and equal opportunities, 3) and the quality of education. To do this a number of variables through which to benchmark the efficiency, effectiveness, and sustainability excellence are chosen, and quantitative data from various sources and qualitative data collected through interviews and focus groups. Results: We observed that the increase of schooling to 18 years has been one of the positive consequences of the implementation of LOGSE because it is a mechanism that significantly promotes equal opportunities, although the results in terms cultural and educational level, still appear to be insufficient. The factors that influence school failure are multiple and are closely interrelated, so that instead of focusing resources on some of its components, seem to be more appropriate and more likely to succeed a strategy that implies a global approach to the problem.

This study examined a sample of primary and secondary school students with alternate school outcomes of high school graduation and school dropout. Using secondary administrative data from a state department of education and a state department of juvenile justice, two models are examined in the current study. Utilizing hierarchical mixed-effects logistic regression models, the relative impacts of demographic characteristics (race, gender, birth year), school-related factors (grade failure, free lunch status, average number of days missed per year, expulsions) and juvenile justice involvement were examined on graduation and dropout outcomes. Across models, juvenile justice contact and school expulsion were the best predictors of negative school outcomes; The findings also demonstrate that race was not as predictive of dropout as were other factors. Findings suggest that interventions, practices, and policies in schools that may prevent negative behavior and subsequent consequences (expulsion and/or juvenile justice contact) may impact the more distal outcomes of high school graduation and dropout. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This 17-year longitudinal study tested whether low peer-perceived acceptance and association with aggressive-disruptive friends during preadolescence predicted students' failure to graduate from secondary school. Participants were 997 Caucasian, French-speaking boys from low-socioeconomic status, urban neighborhoods. The boys were recruited in kindergarten (age 6) and followed through early adulthood (age 23). Low levels of prosocial behaviors and high levels of aggressive-disruptive behaviors in childhood were expected to predict negative preadolescent peer experiences. Adolescent academic achievement and school commitment were expected to mediate the link between preadolescent peer experiences and early adulthood graduation status. Results of structural equation modeling analyses tended to support these hypotheses. Greater childhood aggression-disruptiveness positively predicted friends' preadolescent aggression-disruptiveness. Having aggressive-disruptive friends, in turn, was related to a lower likelihood of graduation. Lower academic achievement and school commitment partially mediated the association between friend characteristics and graduation. Peer acceptance did not contribute to graduation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]