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Professional Actors’ Work to Retain Students in Secondary Education (ProAct)

ProAct aims to explore how school leaders and teachers in upper secondary education work together with lower secondary schools, school authorities, actors from other public services to retain students in secondary education.

Group of people sitting in a circle (Photo: Colourbox illustration).

The ProAct project aims to demonstrate promising practices where school leaders collaborate with school authorities, Pedagogical-Psychological Services, Children Care Services and other public services to retain students in upper secondary education (Photo: Colourbox illustration).

About the project

For many years, Norway has maintained a goal to create a school environment for all students which is referred to as a “school for all”. Still, Norway has experienced a high number of students dropping out of upper secondary education. Almost all 16-year-olds start upper secondary education, but about one-third of them do not complete within the period of five years of legal right to access upper secondary education. The ProAct-project will investigate how teachers, school leaders work together with local and state authorities as well as other public services to increase student retention.

Objectives

The research project Professional Actors’ Work to Retain Students in Secondary Education (ProAct) aims to demonstrate promising practices where school leaders collaborate with school authorities, Pedagogical-Psychological Services, Children Care Services and other public services to retain students in upper secondary education.

By comparing schools with low and high drop-out rates regarding the degree and ways of which these professional actors collaborate, the ProAct project aims to find ways to target possible problems at an earlier stage when interventions can have a larger and more sustainable impact.

Background

PROACT (2020-2024) includes scholars from not only the Department of Teacher Education and School Research at University of Oslo, but also a range of external partners. The project is multidisciplinary and draws on theoretical perspectives and positioned within social science, political science, education and law. New-institutional theories constitute an overall theoretical framework in the project. Both qualitative and quantitative data are included in the study. The project has a mixed-methods design.

Financing

The Research Council of Norway: FINNUT – Programme for Research and Innovation in the Educational Sector

Scientific board

Professor James Spillane,Northwestern University, U.S.A.
Associate Professor Anne Homme,
University of Bergen
Dr. Giang Pham,University of Teacher Education St. Gallen, Switzerland

Master students associated with the project

Ingunn Kjellerød Karlsen,
Master Programme in Educational Leadership, UiO
Carina Hertze Bratli,
Master Programme in Educational Leadership, UiO
Aase Nordtorp Houge,
Master Programme in Educational Leadership, UiO

Hall, Jeffrey & Jensen, Ruth (2025). Nasjonal forventningsstyring og frafall i grunnopplæringen – politikeres og statstjenestepersoners refleksjoner, Fullført og bestått – lovende og frafallshemmende praksiser for å beholde elevene i opplæringsløpet. Cappelen Damm Akademisk. ISSN 9788202815141. Full text in Research Archive
Skedsmo, Guri; Jahreie, Josefine & Arantsstovu, Guro Håve Ur (2025). Ungdomsskolelederes strategier for å skape gode overganger mellom ungdomsskolen og videregående opplæring, Fullført og bestått – lovende og frafallshemmende praksiser for å beholde elevene i opplæringsløpet. Cappelen Damm Akademisk. ISSN 9788202815141. p. 133–157. Full text in Research Archive
Røvik, Kjell Arne (2025). Frafallshemmende praksiser som inspirasjonskilder – utfordringer og muligheter, Fullført og bestått – lovende og frafallshemmende praksiser for å beholde elevene i opplæringsløpet. Cappelen Damm Akademisk. ISSN 9788202815141. p. 159–176. Full text in Research Archive
Helstad, Kristin (2025). Skolehverdagen i videregående skole sett fra elevenes perspektiv, Fullført og bestått – lovende og frafallshemmende praksiser for å beholde elevene i opplæringsløpet. Cappelen Damm Akademisk. ISSN 9788202815141. p. 112–131. Full text in Research Archive
Abrahamsen, Hedvig Neerland (2025). Rektors arbeid for å beholde elever i videregående opplæring, Fullført og bestått – lovende og frafallshemmende praksiser for å beholde elevene i opplæringsløpet. Cappelen Damm Akademisk. ISSN 9788202815141. p. 73–89. Full text in Research Archive
Skedsmo, Guri; Jensen, Ruth & Hall, Jeffrey (2025). Lovende og frafallshemmende praksiser – muligheter og utfordringer, Fullført og bestått – lovende og frafallshemmende praksiser for å beholde elevene i opplæringsløpet. Cappelen Damm Akademisk. ISSN 9788202815141. p. 195–201. Full text in Research Archive
Homme, Anne (2025). Manglende fullføring som gjenstridig problem – implikasjoner for politikk, praksis og forskning, Fullført og bestått – lovende og frafallshemmende praksiser for å beholde elevene i opplæringsløpet. Cappelen Damm Akademisk. ISSN 9788202815141. p. 178–193. Full text in Research Archive
Jensen, Ruth & Hall, Jeffrey (2025). Skolenes strategiske arbeid for å beholde elevene: aktørene, her og nå-arbeidet, praksisene og tilpasningene, Fullført og bestått – lovende og frafallshemmende praksiser for å beholde elevene i opplæringsløpet. Cappelen Damm Akademisk. ISSN 9788202815141. Full text in Research Archive
Mausethagen, Sølvi; Skedsmo, Guri & Røvik, Kjell Arne (2025). Å lage sikkerhetsnett for elevene. Fylkeskommunale rutiner for å motvirke frafall på tvers av tid, sted og aktører, Fullført og bestått – lovende og frafallshemmende praksiser for å beholde elevene i opplæringsløpet. Cappelen Damm Akademisk. ISSN 9788202815141. Full text in Research Archive
Mausethagen, Sølvi & Skedsmo, Guri (2024). Hvordan ser forskningen på frafall i videregående opplæring i Norge ut? Norsk pedagogisk tidsskrift. ISSN 0029-2052. 108(2), p. 108–122. doi: 10.18261/npt.108.2.3. Full text in Research Archive
Skedsmo, Guri & Camphuijsen, Marjolein (2022). The Battle for Whole-Child Approaches: Examining the Motivations, Strategies and Successes of a Parents’ Resistance Movement Against a Performance Regime in a Local Norwegian School System. Education Policy Analysis Archives. 30(135). doi: 10.14507/epaa.30.6452. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
In different parts of the world, social movements led by parents, educators, and professional organizations have emerged that resist educational standardisation and use of (high stakes) standardised tests, and that push for educational change. With the aim of extending empirical coverage of protest movements in non-English speaking countries, this study examines a Norwegian parental movement called Foreldreopprør i Osloskolen (FiO) (in English: Parental Uprising in the Oslo School). We draw on exploratory research based on in-depth interviews with initiators and members of FiO (n=8), as well as documentary and press analysis and an examination of social media sites. The analysis sheds light on the emergence and nature of the movement, parents’ main motivations and discourses, as well as the movements’ collective action strategies and main successes. The findings highlight how rather than opting-out their children from standardised tests, some Norwegian parents chose to opt-out their children from public schools, while continuing their fight for whole-child approaches in public education.
Altrichter, Herbert; Herzog-Punzenberger, Barbara; Fulterer, S; Brown, Martin; Burns, Denise & Nortvedt, Guri A. [Show all 12 contributors for this article] (2021). Leistungsbeurteilung und kulturelle Vielfalt: Herausforderungen und Bewertungspraktiken in Schulen der Sekundarstufe I in Österreich, Irland, Norwegen und der Türkei. Erziehung & Unterricht. ISSN 0014-0325. 171(3-4), p. 251–261. Full text in Research Archive
Verger, Antoni & Skedsmo, Guri (2021). Enacting accountability in education: exploring new policy contexts and theoretical elaborations. Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability. ISSN 1874-8597. 33(3), p. 391–401. doi: 10.1007/s11092-021-09371-x. Full text in Research Archive
Skedsmo, Guri; Rönnberg, Linda & Ydesen, Christian (2020). National testing and accountability in the Scandinavian welfare states: Education policy translations in Norway, Denmark and Sweden. In Grek, Sotiria; Maroy, Christian & Verger, Antoni (Ed.), World Yearbook of Education 2021 Accountability and Datafication in the Governance of Education. Taylor & Francis Group. ISSN 9780367856502. p. 91–107. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
This chapter explores how global education policy and accountability trends are variously translated and adapted in three Scandinavian countries, focusing in particular on the links between national standardized testing and accountability. Norway, Denmark and Sweden are used as empirical cases to reflect on the importance of national trajectories and translations of global ideas and policy. While reference is often made to the ‘universal Scandinavian welfare states’ or the ‘Nordic model’ of education (Antikainen, 2010; Blossing et al., 2014; Telhaug et al., 2006), there are also many differences between the Nordic countries, as for instance in their diverging responses to neoliberal policy developments (Dovemark et al., 2018; Lundahl, 2016; Wiborg, 2013). Our analysis investigates how national testing as an instrument of accountability is linked to translations and enactments in decentralized school systems – including re-centralization processes – under the auspices of a universal welfare state. In particular, we examine how global policy is translated and adapted to serve different purposes and functions within these distinct national contexts.

View all works in NVA

Skedsmo, Guri; Jensen, Ruth & Hall, Jeffrey (2025). Fullført og bestått – lovende og frafallshemmende praksiser for å beholde elevene i opplæringsløpet. Cappelen Damm Akademisk. ISBN 9788202815141. Full text in Research Archive

View all works in NVA

Skedsmo, Guri (2025). Ungdomsskolelederes strategier for å skape gode overganger mellom ungdomsskolen og videregående opplæring. Full text in Research Archive
Skedsmo, Guri (2025). Boundary Work in Action: Developing Relational Agency in Cross-Sector Collaboration for Vulnerable Students. Full text in Research Archive
Skedsmo, Guri (2025). Fullført og bestått – lovende og frafallshemmende praksiser for å beholde elevene i opplæringsløpet. Full text in Research Archive
Abrahamsen, Hedvig Neerland (2025). Rektors arbeid for å beholde elever i videregående opplæring. Full text in Research Archive
Røvik, Kjell Arne (2025). Frafallshemmende praksiser som inspirasjonskilder – utfordringer og muligheter. Full text in Research Archive
Hall, Jeffrey (2025). Nasjonal forventningsstyring og frafall i grunnopplæringen – politikeres og statstjenestepersoners refleksjoner. Full text in Research Archive
Skedsmo, Guri (2025). Fullført og bestått: Å undersøke og forstå frafallshemmende praksiser. Full text in Research Archive
Homme, Anne (2025). Manglende fullføring som gjenstridig problem – implikasjoner for politikk, praksis og forskning. Full text in Research Archive
Skedsmo, Guri (2025). Lovende og frafallshemmende praksiser – muligheter og utfordringer. Full text in Research Archive
Helstad, Kristin (2025). Skolehverdagen i videregående skole sett fra elevenes perspektiv. Full text in Research Archive
Mausethagen, Sølvi (2025). Å lage sikkerhetsnett for elevene - Fylkeskommunale rutiner for å motvirke frafall på tvers av tid, sted og aktører. Full text in Research Archive
Jensen, Ruth (2025). Skolenes strategiske arbeid for å beholde elevene – aktørene, her og nå-arbeidet, praksisene og tilpasningene. Full text in Research Archive
Skedsmo, Guri (2025). Equitable education? Policies and Practices to Prevent Dropout, Accommodate Needs and Retain Students in Secondary Education. Full text in Research Archive
Skedsmo, Guri & Mausethagen, Sølvi (2025). District Administrators’ Strategies and Successful Knowledge Sharing to Retain Students in Upper-Secondary Education in Norway. Full text in Research Archive
Skedsmo, Guri; Hall, Jeffrey & Jahreie, Josefine (2025). International Research on Strategies to Prevent Dropout and Retain Students in Secondary Education. Full text in Research Archive
Skedsmo, Guri (2025). Building Bridges for Vulnerable Students: Cross-Sector Collaboration in Norwegian Municipal Networks. Full text in Research Archive
Hall, Jeffrey & Jensen, Ruth (2025). Nasjonal forventningsstyring og frafall i grunnopplæringen – politikeres og statstjenestepersoners refleksjoner. Full text in Research Archive
Skedsmo, Guri (2024). Defining and Digitalising Risk: How School Administrators Use Performance Data to Retain Students in Norwegian Upper Secondary Education. Full text in Research Archive
Jahreie, Josefine; Hall, Jeffrey & Skedsmo, Guri (2024). International Research on Strategies to Prevent Dropout and Retain Students in Secondary Education. Full text in Research Archive
Skedsmo, Guri (2024). Facing expectations of school performance: variations in principals’ responses to accountability demands. Full text in Research Archive
Jensen, Ruth; Abrahamsen, Hedvig Neerland & Helstad, Kristin (2024). The institutional and Strategic work of School Leaders and Teachers to accommodate students’ needs in Secondary Education. Full text in Research Archive
Skedsmo, Guri & Jahreie, Josefine (2024). Campus-Community Partnership: Developing Multiprofessional Collaboration in an Intermunicipal Network to Accommodate the Needs of Children and Youth. Full text in Research Archive
Skedsmo, Guri (2024). Equitable education? Strategies to Prevent Dropout, Accommodate Needs and Retain Students in Secondary Education. Full text in Research Archive
Abrahamsen, Hedvig Neerland; Jensen, Ruth & Helstad, Kristin (2024). How do principals work to retain students in upper secondary education? Full text in Research Archive
Skedsmo, Guri & Mausethagen, Sølvi (2024). Enactment of Policy Interventions to Retain Students in a Market-Oriented Secondary Education in Norway. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
Enactment of Policy Interventions to Retain Students in a Market-Oriented Secondary Education in Norway Despite having a comprehensive model of education, like all the other Nordic countries, Norway has experienced a high number of students dropping out of secondary education. Almost all 16-year-olds start upper secondary education in Norway, but about one-third of them do not complete within the five years that they have a legal right to access upper secondary education (SSB, 2018). This is seen as a big societal and political problem and is an indicator that the education system is at risk of failing its responsibility to these students. Over the last 25 years, hybrid school governance has developed: national policies and regulations have been introduced to prevent dropout along with regional monitoring systems to follow up on school results that combine performance-based and professional accountabilities, and financial models promoting marketisation and competition. This paper analyses how regional educational authorities (county level) and school leaders in upper secondary schools interpret and translate policy interventions to prevent dropout into practice. The aim is to examine the role of subjective variables and processes of meaning making in the mediation of such interventions. The analysis includes data from interviews with educational authorities in three counties that were selected according to completion rates over time and geographical location, and data from observations of annual steering dialogues between educational authorities and leaders in six upper secondary schools. Enactment and sensemaking approaches are used to analyse the data to provide a nuanced understanding of how the informants react to and apply new policy prerogatives in specific socio-institutional settings (Ball et al., 2011; Falabella, 2014). Even though completion rates represent the main indicator in the quality assurance systems, findings show that educational authorities adapt strategies to follow up the work of the schools, in particular their emphasis on accountabilities and the role of school development. Digital technologies play an important role to monitor school results and seem to promote a new professionalism around discourses and practices to retain students in secondary education and transform interactions between actors at county and school levels. References: Ball, S. J., Maguire, M., & Braun, A. (2011). How schools do policy: Policy enactments in secondary schools. Routledge. Falabella, A. (2014). The performing school: The effects of market and accountability policies. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 22(70), 1–26. Statistics Norway (2018). Arbeidskraftsundersøkelsen. https://www.ssb.no/arbeid-og-lonn/statistikker/aku/kvartal
Skedsmo, Guri (2023). Current Challenges for School Leadership in Norway. Full text in Research Archive
Skedsmo, Guri & Mausethagen, Sølvi (2023). Creating Safety Nets in a Loosely-Coupled System. Full text in Research Archive
Skedsmo, Guri & Mausethagen, Sølvi (2023). Models and strategies used by county authorities to increase the student rate of “completed” and “passed”. Full text in Research Archive
Mausethagen, Sølvi & Skedsmo, Guri (2023). Previous research on strategies to retain students in secondary education. Full text in Research Archive
Skedsmo, Guri & Hall, Jeffrey (2023). Professional Work to Retain Students in Secondary Education: Coordination and Systemic Approaches. Full text in Research Archive
Jensen, Ruth; Abrahamsen, Hedvig Neerland & Helstad, Kristin (2023). The strategic work of school leaders and teachers to retaining students. Full text in Research Archive
Hall, Jeffrey Brooks & Novak, Judit (2022). Current Policy Expectations on Norwegian School Leaders: State policy on the professional work of retaining students in secondary education. Full text in Research Archive
Skedsmo, Guri (2021). Accountable for Improving Education for All? Tensions in Local Practices of Data Use in Norwegian Municipalities and Schools. Full text in Research Archive
Skedsmo, Guri; Rönnberg, Linda & Ydesen, Christian (2021). National Testing and Accountability in the Scandinavian Welfare States: Education Policy Translations in Norway, Denmark and Sweden. Full text in Research Archive
Skedsmo, Guri (2021). National and local quality assessment systems: School Principals’ Roles and Strategies? Full text in Research Archive
Hall, Jeffrey Brooks & Novak, Judit (2021). Current Policy Expectations on Norwegian School Leaders: State policy and the professional work of retaining students in secondary education. Full text in Research Archive
Skedsmo, Guri & Gunnulfsen, Ann Elisabeth (2020). School leadership in Norway: Key characteristics and current challenges. Full text in Research Archive
Skedsmo, Guri (2020). Professional Actors' Work on Retaining Students in Secondary Education. Full text in Research Archive
Lütken, Benedicte Margrethe & Skedsmo, Guri (2023). Tett på En casestudie om frafall, og alternative veier til fullført og bestått videregående opplæring. Universitetet i Oslo. Full text in Research Archive
Arantsstovu, Guro Håve ur & Skedsmo, Guri (2023). Tett på og sammen om elevene. En casestudie av to ungdomsskolers arbeid med skolefravær og overgang mellom skoleslag. Universitetet i Oslo. Full text in Research Archive
Bratli, Carina A. Hertze; Houge, Aase Nordtorp; Karlsen, Ingunn Kjellerød & Skedsmo, Guri (2021). Vi gir dem ikke opp En casestudie av organisering og lederstrategier i frafallsarbeidet i to videregående skoler. Universitetet i Oslo. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
I denne oppgaven undersøker vi skolelederes erfaringer med frafallsarbeidet som gjøres i videregående skole. Vi valgte ut én videregående skole i to fylker og intervjuet fire skoleledere. Gjennom et casestudium fikk vi fram tette og virkelighetsnære beskrivelser. I studien benytter vi oss av utfyllende strategi for å håndtere teorimangfoldet. Kompleksiteten i skolen som organisasjon innebærer at vi hadde behov for flere innfallsvinkler for å forstå og analysere, i lys av teoretiske perspektiver. Viktige funn har vært at selv om nasjonale satsninger ikke så lett kan spores i klasserommene, har regionale og lokale tiltak har vist positive tegn, og enkelte fylker har en høyere andel elever med fullført og bestått enn andre. Selv om begge skolene benytter den samme modellen for identifisering, kartlegging og oppfølging (IKO), organiserer skolene frafallsarbeidet ulikt. Vi finner at aktørene i frafallsarbeidet er med på å påvirke strukturene i arbeidet. Videre ser vi forskjeller i støttetjenestenes organisering, og at tilbudet til elevene varierer fra fylke til fylke, og fra skole til skole. De to skolenes rektorer har ulik tilnærming til hvilke aktører som best håndterer frafallsarbeidet. Imidlertid har de et felles mål; å videreutvikle frafallsarbeidet for at flest mulig elever fullfører og består. Videre finner vi at skolens kontekst ser ut til å være avgjørende for lederstrategiene i frafallsarbeidet, blant annet er det elevgruppens behov som påvirker skoleledernes valg av strategier. Denne studien har implikasjoner for praksis og videre forskning, samt for den generelle verdidebatten om måling i skolen. Vi fant en verdirefleksjon hos skolelederne vi intervjuet, om at fullført og bestått-andelen er et øyeblikksbilde, og at deres menneskesyn favner videre enn som så, - elever kan nå sine mål, med mye støtte, og i eget tempo. Vi ser videre at mange av strategiene i frafallsarbeidet består av taus kunnskap, som med fordel kan gjøres eksplisitte, for å sikre en større kontinuitet. Skolene vi har studert, har gode resultater for fullført og bestått, på tross av ulike lokale strategier i frafallsarbeidet. Våre funn viser at strategiene omhandler arbeid med utvikling av en positiv skolekultur, med voksne som følger opp tett, og som har en variert verktøykasse i frafallsarbeidet.