High School Dropout Rates

Public education is under increasing scrutiny, primarily in the area of student academic achievement; teachers and evolving leaders are being held to a standard of high-stakes accountability. Often, public perception is that primary and secondary school systems are not duly improving in performance in the face of increased public expenditure on education, although concomitantly financial support continues to shrink each year, as in reality educators are expected to do more and more with fewer resources. Compounding this public perception is the problem of an increasing high school dropout rate. The purpose of this entry is to describe the high school dropout problem, then to offer predictive characteristics of students at risk of dropping out, and finally to briefly discuss possible remedies based on scholarship and ...