Recent research (2004) confirms that late adolescents expelled from
high school are more likely as young adults to have adult criminal
convictions, use weapons, or sell drugs (which is no big surprise but
there is now good statistically valid evidence of that).

I am looking for three things in relation to PROGRAMS TARGETED AT LATE
ADOLESCENTS EXPELLED FROM HIGH SCHOOL and aimed at
preventing/forestalling those (or other) later adverse effects on them
or society.  I am NOT interested in programs targeted at dropouts in
general.  Timewise, responses should be within the last 3 calendar
years, if possible:

1.  What recent written overviews exist of the universe of such
programs--descriptive or evaluative--and how do I gain access to them?
2.  Who are the top five experts/gurus on this subject (university,
government, think tanks, advocacy groups, etc.) and how do I contact
them?
3.  Are there descriptions available of ten (or the ten best or most
prominent) programs aimed at recently expelled high school students
with the goal of averting adverse later outcomes and getting such kids
on "good" developmental paths?

This is not a school/college assignment.  I am a consultant to a
foundation interested in funding such programs.

Out of curiosity, which recent research are you referring to in the first paragraph?

I'm working on a project for Public/Private Ventures (PPV), a
foundation/government funded R&D nonprofit in Philadelphia that
focuses heavily on disadvantaged youth.  With foundation funding, the
team I'm on has analyzed an unusualy comprehensive panel survey out of
UNC (I think) that surveyed several thousand kids three times from
mid-adolescence into young adulthood, to find statistically valid
relationships between mid-adolescent events (like being expelled) and
young adult "outcomes" like using a gun, selling drugs, etc.--with the
results I indicated.  The research is still in draft and the last
section is to be about its programmatic implications.

I'm familiar with the data you are referring to: The National
Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health).  I hope to use
this data in the future to address similar questions.  For my
Criminology and Criminal Justice Masters Thesis, I assessed the impact
of dropout on crime using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth
1997.  This is a nationally-representative panel data set with five
waves of data so far.  I found that dropout does not cause more crime,
but that individuals who drop out of high school are more likely to
commit crime both before and after dropping out of high school
relative to those who remain in school.  The main concern with this
kind of research is addressing selection bias, which I did with a
random effects model.

Of course, reason for dropping out of school makes a difference. 
Individuals who drop out because of expulsion commit more crime than
individuals who drop out in order to work more intensively or to have
a baby. But even so, I didn't find that the dropout "event" itself was
causal.

I'm very interested in both of your questions, and I intend to answer
them if I find time this weekend.  I'm very busy right now, but I
would like to know the answers to your questions as well.  If this
weekend is too late, let me know and I'll try to work on it before
then.

Another note: Limiting research to the past three years may be a
problem.  I know of some comprehensive meta-analyses which were
published up to ten years ago which would be relevant to your
question.  Is it ok if I refer to these studies as long as I'm sure to
include the most recent studies as well?

Delighted to hear you're familiar with this data set.  My PPV
colleagues have spent the summer/fall doing what I'm told are dozens
if not hundreds of regressions and other analyses to come up with
expellees and criminal offenders with pretty high/valid relationships
to adult adverse outcomes, which, of course, are not causal. Anyway,
both these populations are subsumed before and after the indicated
events.  That is, they are usually "at risk" kids in high school, who
do something bad enough to get expelled/convicted and then seem to be
subsumed after such events into broader "treatment" categories of
dropouts, disconnected youth, etc. The trick in these questions (I've
actually submitted two very similar questions, one on expellees and
one on offenders--haven't heard from anyone re the other) is to find
answers specifically related to expellees/offenders as distinguished
from the broader categories.  We are not interested in programs
preventing expulsion/conviction but that deal with kids after such
events.  Thanks for your help.  Timewise, either do something by COB
April 29 (so I can do something with it on April 30), OR take your
time.  I'm leaving on a two-week vacation on May 3.  I'd rather you
take your time and do a great job than rush something.  If you need
more that whatever $50 gets me of your time, let me know ASAP. 
Thanks.

Oops, forgot to respond to the 3-year limit question.  Nah, do what
you said.  Recent stuff is best, but older good stuff is good, too.

I couldn't get to it today.  Have a good vacation, and I hope to have
some great research waiting for you when you get back.

baze,

Your questions are fairly broad, and I started to look at them a few
times, but I really don't have the time to research these right now. 
I'm literally working 60+ hours a week for grad school stuff right
now.  Sorry for raising your hopes. I thought I'd have time to get to
this.