Profile of the school dropout : perceptions of the early school leaver

Abstract

The dilemma of high school dropouts has achieved unprecedented urgency at national, state, and local levels. Educators continually attempt to define the role of the public school system in interpreting, evaluating, and reporting the causes and consequences of leaving school prior to graduation. The purposes of this research were: (1) to examine to what extent family background characteristics may influence a student's decision to drop out of school; (2) to determine what effect school interactions and academic performance had on the ultimate decision to leave school; (3) to examine the social relationships of the student to determine how they may have influenced the decision to leave school; and, (4) to determine if the reasons for quitting school, as perceived by the dropout, are singularly unique to the individual or common within the sample population. Fifty-one students who had previously dropped out of high school, but were currently enrolled in an alternative educational center, were personally interviewed with a questionnaire developed by the researcher. Data analysis included the descriptive statistics of frequency distributions, percentages, mean scores, standard deviations, and relationships between variables. The researcher concluded that there is no one single variable, or group of variables, that can be used to predict whether a student will drop out in all situations. Each student is uniquely individual; however, certain variables can provide warnings of potential dropouts. Irregular attendance patterns, being consistently late for school, and low levels of educational attainment by parents were indicators constant across the sample population. Pregnancy and/or marriage were the highest rated indicators for females, while work or failing grades were most common among males.