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In this article, we exploit the 1947 change to the minimum school-leaving age in England from 14 to 15, to evaluate the causal effect of a year of education on cognitive abilities at older ages. We use a regression discontinuity design analysis and find a large and significant effect of the reform on males' memory and executive functioning at older ages, using simple cognitive tests from the English Longitudinal Survey on Ageing as our outcome measures. This result is particularly remarkable as the reform had a powerful and immediate effect on about half the population of 14 years olds. We investigate and discuss the potential channels by which this reform may have had its effects, as well as carrying out a full set of sensitivity analyses and robustness checks.

Compulsory school attendance policies establish a school entry age and a school leaving age for students. In 1916, the Province of Manitoba introduced a compulsory attendance law that mandated students attend school from the age of 7 to the age of 14. Fifty years later, further amendments were made to the school leaving age, but the school entry age did not change. On December 6, 2010, the Province of Manitoba presented Bill 13: The Preparing Students for Success Act in the provincial legislature increasing the compulsory school attendance age in Manitoba from 16 to 18. The purpose of this statute was to ensure that students stay in school and complete their high school education in response to continually low high school graduation rates in the province. Manitoba became only the 3rd province in Canada to enact a compulsory school leaving age of 18. The impact of this legislation on educators and administrators was included in the findings of a dissertation that analysed the policy that introduced this increase in the school leaving age as well as its historical precedents. The primary question of this paper addresses is, “How did educators and administrators interpret and implement the increase to the compulsory school leaving age to 18 years in three Manitoba schools as a result of The Preparing Students for Success Act 2011? This paper is organized in three parts. Part I reviews the statutory history and rationale in Canada for a compulsory school attendance age limit. Part II looks at the Manitoba rationale for increasing the school attendance age through The Preparing Students for Success Act 2011 as well as its success at meeting this policy’s objective. Part III provides a reflection on lessons learned from the Manitoba experience.

The raising of the participation age (RPA) to 17 in 2013 and 18 in 2015 marks a historic expansion of compulsory education. Despite the tendency of New Labour governments to eschew historical understanding and explanation, RPA was conceived with the benefit of an analysis of previous attempts to extend compulsion in schooling. This paper assesses the value of a historical understanding of education policy. The period from inception to the projected implementation of RPA is an extended one which has crossed over the change of government, from Labour to Coalition, in 2010. The shifting emphases and meanings of RPA are not simply technical issues but connect to profound historical and social changes. An analysis of the history of the raising of the school leaving age reveals many points of comparison with the contemporary situation. In a number of key areas it is possible to gain insights into the ways in which the study of the past can help to comprehend the present: the role of human capital, the structures of education, in curriculum development and in terms of preparations for change.

Background This paper examines the transitions made by lower secondary school leavers and intermediate secondary school leavers into vocational education and training in Germany. With the basis that boys have long been underperforming girls in school, the paper investigates the question of whether male adolescents continue to be similarly disadvantaged when transitioning into vocational education and training. A distinction must be drawn between the more male-orientated dual system of vocational education and training, which represents the most significant sector in terms of size, and the more female-orientated school-based occupational system, which is much less significant in terms of size. Methods The Transition Study 2011 by the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB), a representative survey of young adults living in Germany who were born between 1987 and 1993, forms the data basis. Through 5333 interviews, the survey recorded the entire education, training and occupational biography of young adults. We calculate multinomial logistic regression models and perform Cox regressions. Results The analyses reveal that male adolescents have better opportunities when entering company-based or dual education and training, while female adolescents enjoy advantages when entering school-based vocational education and training. When considering the wider picture—i.e., overall placement into vocational training that leads to full vocational qualification—male adolescents are not identified as more disadvantaged than female adolescents in terms of opportunities. However, while there is little difference in the placement opportunities between male and female adolescents with an intermediate school-leaving qualification, female adolescents with a maximum of a lower secondary school-leaving certificate face significantly worse prospects than comparable male adolescents. Conclusions Female adolescents leaving school with no more than a lower secondary school-leaving certificate can be regarded as the “losers” when transitioning into vocational education and training. It is our view that the disadvantage this group faces indicates a clear need for action in vocational education and training policy. Changes would appear to be appropriate in both dual and school-based education and training.

Authors reflect on the possibility that an accurate methodological proposal can not only let didactics become inclusive but also to positively influence the educational and professional future of students with multiple identity characteristics who, on the contrary, risk to leave school. In this sense, we think that teachers’ beliefs play an important role and that is very crucial detect teachers’ type of stereotypes and prejudice they have. In this regard, we also present and discuss some results obtained by the Intersectional Questionnaire (De Castro, 2023a) used within the Course of Specialisation for Support Activities (from V to IX cycle).   Prevenire l’abbandono. La scuola tra credenze degli/delle insegnanti e proposte metodologiche. Nel contributo le autrici ragionano attorno alla possibilità che un’adeguata proposta metodologica ha non solo di rendere la didattica inclusiva ma anche di influenzare positivamente il futuro educativo e professionale di allievi/e con plurime caratteristiche identitarie che, contrariamente, rischiano di abbandonare la scuola. A nostro avviso, le credenze degli/delle insegnanti svolgono un ruolo decisivo in tal senso e riteniamo sia importante rilevare il tipo di stereotipi e pregiudizi inerenti alle questioni identitarie di cui il corpo docente soffre. A riguardo, vengono anche presentati e discussi alcuni dei risultati ottenuti mediante il Questionario Intersezionale (De Castro, 2023a) impiegato nell’ambito del Corso di Specializzazione per le Attività di Sostegno (dal V al IX Ciclo).

In this article, we study the crime reducing potential of education, presenting causal statistical estimates based upon a law that changed the compulsory school leaving age in England and Wales.We frame the analysis in a regression-discontinuity setting and uncover significant decreases in property crime from reductions in the proportion of people with no educational qualifications and increases in the age of leaving school that resulted from the change in the law. The findings show that improving education can yield significant social benefits and can be a key policy tool in the drive to reduce crime.

Background Education is a key determinant of future employment and income prospects of young people. Poor mental health is common among young people and is related to risk of dropping out of school (dropout). Educational level and gender might play a role in the association, which remains to be studied. Methods Mental health was measured in 3146 Danish inhabitants aged 16–29 years using the 12-Item Short-Form Health Survey and examined across genders and educational levels. For students, educational level at baseline was used; for young people who were not enrolled in school at baseline (non-students), the highest achieved educational level was used. The risk of dropout in students was investigated in administrative registers over a 4.8–year period (1 st March 2010–31 th December 2014). Odds ratios (OR) and 95 % confidence intervals (CI) were calculated for mental health and in relation to dropout in logistic regression models, adjusting for age, gender, educational level, parental education, parental income and ethnicity. Results Poor mental health was present in 24 % ( n  = 753) of the participants, 29 % ( n  = 468) in females and 19 % ( n  = 285) in males ( p  < 0.0001). The prevalence differed from 19 to 39 % across educational levels ( p  < 0.0001). Females had a statistically significantly higher adjusted risk of poor mental health than males (OR = 1.8, CI = 1.5–2.2). Among the students the lowest risk was found at the elementary level (OR = 1.3, CI = 0.8–2.3), while students in higher education had a statistically significantly higher risk (OR = 1.9, CI = 1.2–2.9). The lowest-educated non-students had the highest OR of poor mental health (OR = 3.3, CI = 2.1–5.4). Dropout occurred in 8 % ( n  = 124) of the students. Poor mental health was associated to dropout in vocational (OR = 1.8, CI = 1.0–3.2) and higher education (OR = 2.0, CI = 1.0–4.2). For males in higher education, poor mental health was a predictor of dropout (OR = 5.2, CI = 1.6–17.3), which was not seen females in higher education (OR = 1.2, CI = 0.5–3.1). Conclusions Poor mental health was significantly associated to dropout among students in vocational and higher education. Males in higher education had five times the risk of dropout when reporting poor mental health, while no such association was found for females.

This contribution proposes an analysis of some of the possible school context avoidance processes potentially related to dropping out through the filter of the psychological flexibility model. In it, human suffering is observed primarily as the result of attempting to avoid difficult internal experiences related to life contexts, and, in doing so, to act in ways that distance the suffering subject from the most meaningful dimensions of his or her own experience. The model identifies six processes of inflexibility involved in this outcome and, in parallel, six processes of flexibility that can be fostered and supported through specific contextual transformations, especially related to the verbal context of experience. These processes and some of their possible implications in reducing school context avoidance are therefore presented. The validity of an intervention based on psychological flexibility to reduce school avoidance will have to be experimentally verified.   La flessibilità psicologica a scuola. Verso contesti di apprendimento più adatti a non lasciare nessuno indietro. Questo contributo propone un’analisi di alcuni dei possibili processi di evitamento del contesto scolastico potenzialmente connessi all’abbandono attraverso il filtro del modello della flessibilità psicologica. In esso, la sofferenza umana è osservata soprattutto come il risultato del tentativo di evitare esperienze interne difficili connesse ai contesti di vita, e, nel farlo, di agire in modi che allontanano il soggetto che soffre dalle dimensioni per sé più significative della propria esperienza. Il modello identifica sei processi di inflessibilità coinvolti in questo esito e, parallelamente, sei processi di flessibilità che possono essere favoriti e supportati attraverso specifiche trasformazioni contestuali, soprattutto connesse al contesto verbale dell’esperienza. Si presentano quindi tali processi e alcune possibili loro implicazioni nella riduzione dell’evitamento del contesto scolastico. La validità di un intervento basato sulla flessibilità psicologica per ridurre l’evitamento scolastico dovrà essere sperimentalmente verificata.

Introduction - International trends influencing secondary education in Sub-Saharan Africa - Issues of governance in secondary education in Sub-Saharan Africa - Management of secondary education: focus on the school - Accountability - The governance and accountability of private schools - Special issue: addressing ICT and technical training - Recommendations.

This paper analyzes policies and interventions implemented at the regional level in Sicily to combat early school leaving. Through systematic document analysis (SDA), institutional documents, regulations, reports, and operational plans produced between 2019-2024 were examined. The analysis revealed increasing inter-institutional coordination, while critical issues emerge in provincial disparities and the sustainability of interventions. The conclusions highlight the importance of systematizing interventions, improving impact evaluation mechanisms, and developing strategies that effectively integrate schools, families, and local communities.   Politiche regionali di contrasto alla dispersione scolastica in Sicilia: un’analisi documentale sistematica. Il presente studio analizza le politiche e gli interventi attuati a livello regionale in Sicilia per contrastare la dispersione scolastica. Attraverso l’analisi sistematica della documentazione (SDA), sono stati esaminati documenti istituzionali, normative, relazioni e piani operativi prodotti tra il 2019 e il 2024. L’analisi ha evidenziato un crescente coordinamento interistituzionale, mentre emergono criticità nelle disparità provinciali e nella sostenibilità degli interventi. Le conclusioni sottolineano l’importanza di sistematizzare gli interventi, migliorare i meccanismi di valutazione d’impatto e sviluppare strategie che integrino efficacemente scuole, famiglie e comunità locali.