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High School Dropout Prevention
Defining Dropout | Early Warning Signs | Dropout Prevention Strategies | Dropout Prevention for Students with Special Needs | Research on this Topic 
| Technical Assistance Responses
Far too many high school students drop out of school long before graduation day. Nationwide it is reported that only 71 percent of students graduate from high school and only about half of Black and Latino students graduate.1
The economic consequences of leaving high school without a diploma are severe. According to National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) data, on average, dropouts are more likely to be unemployed than high school graduates, and earn less money when they do secure work. High school dropouts are also more likely to receive public assistance than high school graduates who do not go on to college, a reality due at least in part to the fact that young women who drop out of school are more likely to have children at younger ages and be single parents than their counterparts who do graduate.2
Compounding the issue of high school dropout rates is the fact that many of these students also have disabilities. Given that students with disabilities drop out of school at over twice the rate of their same-age peers, states and local education agencies are in need of dropout prevention interventions that yield positive results.3
The National High School Center provides a variety of valuable resources in the area of dropout prevention. A relatively strong research base exists for student dropout prevention, and when it comes to these types of high school interventions, researchers know a great deal about what works. The National High School Center helps bridge those research-based findings with real-life practice in schools.
Defining Dropout
High School Dropout: A Quick Stats Fact Sheet
This fact sheet highlights the problem of dropout prevention facing America’s high schools today. It provides information on the students most likely to drop out, and examines the impact of dropouts on crime, the economy, personal incomes, and employment. (September 2007)
State Approaches to More Reliable and Uniform Dropout and Graduation Data
This issue brief outlines the immediate need for more accurate dropout and graduation data, while providing a snapshot of work currently underway. By drawing on two prominent methods for calculating graduation rates: the National Governors Association’s endorsed longitudinal approach and the Averaged Freshman Graduation Rate (AFGR), this brief outlines how data are needed to track dropout trends and patterns, as well as how to direct resources and more effective strategies to ensure more students receive a high school diploma. This brief concludes by offering take-aways for states. (August 2007)
2008 National High School Center Summer Institute Breakout on Dropout Prevention
This session spotlighted data on high school dropout rates and discussed several effective interventions that can be used to identify at-risk students and prevent dropout.
2007 National High School Center Summer Institute Panel Discussion on Dropout Prevention
This presentation takes an in-depth look at the dropout problem affecting all states across the nation. Panelists outline the problem and causes that contribute to the high number of dropouts and discussed innovative and effective solutions that are working to reduce the number of students who do not graduate from high school in the United States.
Locating the Dropout Crisis
Using data compiled by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), researchers Robert Balfanz and Nettie Legters measured the "promoting power" of 10,000 regular and vocational high schools with enrollments of more than 300 students. According to Balfanz and Legters, schools have "weak promoting power" if the freshman class shrinks by 40 percent or more by the time students reach their senior year.
View Balfanz and Legters' presentation, Locating and Preventing the Dropout Crisis: How to Target and Transform High Schools Which Produce the Nation’s Dropouts, given at the National High School Center's 2007 Summer Institute.
The High Cost of High School Dropouts: What the Nation Pays for Inadequate High Schools
This issue brief, published by the Alliance for Excellent Education, summarizes the negative economic impact that high school dropouts have on their own earning potential as well as on the nation as a whole over their life time. Additionally, the brief breaks down the negative lifetime economic impact that high school dropouts have on the economy by state and uses this data to make the case for high school improvement.
On the Frontlines of Schools: Perspectives of Teachers and Principals on the High School Dropout Problem
This report by Civic Enterprises in association with Peter D. Hart Research Associates for the AT&T Foundation and the America’s Promise Alliance, documents a mix of hopeful views and challenging statistics concerning how, and how well, teachers and principals understand the nation's high school dropout crisis.
Why Students Drop Out of School: A Review of 25 Years of Research
This review, from the California Dropout Research Project, is based on 203 published studies that analyzed a variety of national, state, and local data to identify statistically significant predictors of high school dropout and graduation. The research review identified two types of factors that predict whether students drop out or graduate from high school: factors associated with individual characteristics of students, and factors associated with the institutional characteristics of their families, schools, and communities.
1 Greene, J., and Forster, G. "Public High School Graduation and College Readiness Rates in the United States." September 2003. Manhattan Institute for Policy Research.
2 Kaufman, P., Naomi Alt, M., & Chapman, C. (2004). Dropout Rates in the United States: 2001. National Center for Education Statistics, 1.
3 Cobb, B., Sample, P., Alwell, M., & Johns, N. (2005). The Effects of Cognitive-Behavioral Interventions on Dropout for Youth with Disabilities. National Dropout Prevention Center for Students with Disabilities, 8.
