essay of school dropouts

High School Dropouts and Their Reasons Essay

Introduction, educational reasons.

Education is an essential phenomenon in the modern world because it provides people with decent opportunities for further personal and professional development. It is believed that graduates of high schools tend to achieve more successful results in their lives compared to their less-educated colleagues. Even though it is difficult to overestimate the significance of high school diplomas, a few students fail to obtain them. Thus, there are many reasons, including educational, psychological, personal, and financial ones, that make students drop out of high schools before their graduation.

It is not a surprise that academic performance is one of the principal aspects that result in a dropout. The fact is that high schools can imply various standards that their students must meet. For some of them, these requirements are almost unachievable, which makes learners fail some courses. When the number of failed courses is high, the student’s future in a particular educational establishment is determined. The outcome above is a result of a few things. On the one hand, it refers to students’ mental abilities. One should note that everyone has their own knowledge and skills, and the same assignment can be either an ordinary task or an impossible problem for different people. On the other hand, poor secondary school preparation is said to be another essential phenomenon for the given topic. It is said that some students enter high schools without having gained the necessary levels of expertise in such general courses as language and mathematics. The information above means that there are a few educational aspects that prevent learners from graduating from high schools.

Financial Reasons

Financial issues are another phenomenon that is behind numerous high school dropouts. These problems are of two different groups, and each of them is significant. Firstly, it refers to tuition fees that can be high in some cases. Thus, if a young man or woman cannot afford their tuition fees, they will be expelled. What is more tragic, the same outcome will arise if a student shows decent or even excellent academic results. One supposes that many gifted learners did not graduate from their educational institutions because of that reason. Secondly, it is a typical case when a student leaves their education because they need to make money to support their families. In this case, the financial issue meets an educational one because many working students tend to show worse academic performance. At this point, these economic reasons represent a severe obstruction to obtaining a high school diploma.

Psychological Reasons

Many students are too young, and this fact creates appropriate mental challenges for them. High schools are a regular stage in the learners’ lives representing many new things and aspects. Thus, if a student is not satisfied with this new environment, they lose interest in education. Besides, some students are undecided about their future, which makes them attend high schools because they have to, rather than because they like it. That is why some of them choose the wrong course that can force them to leave education. All the examples above are summarized as a lack of motivation. In this case, a person does not understand why they should attend classes and what advantages this education can present. As a result, these psychological reasons both prevent students from showing decent academic performance and make them find some phenomena that will be more interesting than education. Both cases lead to situations when these students will be expelled from high schools.

Personal Reasons

The group of personal reasons represents one of the most common issues that make students leave their high schools. One should remember that every learner is a personality with characteristic features, feelings, and emotions. If some of them manage to control their thoughts and actions, others fail with this task. As a result, numerous conflicts occur between students, a student, and a mentor, as well as a student and their parents on an educational basis. When such situations happen regularly, it will make learners drop out of school. Thus, students, their families, and school officials should do their best to decrease this negative impact.

In addition to that, high schools make learners believe that they are adults and may do what they want. Often, it leads them to various problems and dangerous situations. For example, young women can get pregnant; this condition will make it difficult for them to continue their education. Furthermore, both male and female students are vulnerable to many temptations. It refers to the fact that they start smoking and drinking alcohol. It is the first step towards severer problems represented by drug consumption and joining gangs. In this case, it will be difficult for these young people to avoid legal issues. Once they arise, the fact of when a dropout will occur is only a question of time.

Education presents many benefits, but not all students manage to obtain them. It is believed that a significant part of all students drop out of high school before they graduate from them. There are four groups of the reasons, including educational, financial, psychological, and personal ones. It is impossible to state which group is more crucial or which one has made more students leave their education. When they exist, it is not reasonable to ignore the given state of affairs. As a result, it is necessary to eliminate the effect of these phenomena to make more people finish their education.

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• Our Mission

How to End the Dropout Crisis: 10 Strategies for Student Retention

Proven tactics for keeping kids engaged and in school, all the way through high school graduation.

Are you sitting down? Each year, more than a million kids will leave school without earning a high school diploma -- that's approximately 7,000 students every day of the academic year. Without that diploma, they'll be more likely to head down a path that leads to lower-paying jobs, poorer health, and the possible continuation of a cycle of poverty that creates immense challenges for families, neighborhoods, and communities.

For some students, dropping out is the culmination of years of academic hurdles, missteps, and wrong turns. For others, the decision to drop out is a response to conflicting life pressures -- the need to help support their family financially or the demands of caring for siblings or their own child. Dropping out is sometimes about students being bored and seeing no connection between academic life and "real" life. It's about young people feeling disconnected from their peers and from teachers and other adults at school. And it's about schools and communities having too few resources to meet the complex emotional and academic needs of their most vulnerable youth.

Although the reasons for dropping out vary, the consequences of the decision are remarkably similar. Over a lifetime, dropouts typically earn less, suffer from poorer health as adults, and are more likely to wind up in jail than their diploma-earning peers. An August 2007 report by the California Dropout Research Project (PDF) detailed the economic and social impacts of failing to finish high school in the Golden State. The numbers cited in the report are sobering: High school graduates earn an average of nearly $290,000 more than dropouts over their lifetime, and they are 68 percent less apt to rely on public assistance. The link between dropout rates and crime is also well documented, and the report's data indicates that high school graduation reduces violent crime by 20 percent. And nationally, the economic impact is clear: A 2011 analysis by the Alliance for Excellent Education estimates that by halving the 2010 national dropout rate, for example (an estimated 1.3 million students that year), "new" graduates would likely earn a collective $7.6 billion more in an average year than they would without a high school diploma.

Mounting research on the causes and consequences of dropping out, coupled with more accurate reporting on the extent of the crisis, has led to increased public focus on what's been called the silent epidemic. And with that focus comes the possibility of more action at the local, state, and national levels to implement a mix of reforms that will support all students through high school graduation. Such reforms include early identification of and support for struggling students, more relevant and engaging courses, and structural and scheduling changes to the typical school day.

Decades of research and pockets of success point to measures that work. Here are ten strategies that can help reduce the dropout rate in your school or community. We begin with steps to connect students and parents to school and then address structural, programmatic, and funding changes:

1. Engage and Partner with Parents

It's an all-too-familiar story: Parent involvement declines as students get older and become more independent. But although the role of parents changes in secondary school, their ongoing engagement -- from regular communication with school staff to familiarity with their child's schedule, courses, and progress toward graduation -- remains central to students' success. Findings in a March 2006 report, " The Silent Epidemic ," illustrate the importance of engaged parents throughout secondary school. Sixty-eight percent of the high school dropouts who participated in the study said their parents became involved in their education only after realizing their student was contemplating dropping out of school.

In Sacramento, California, high school staff members make appointments with parents for voluntary home visits, to keep parents engaged with their children's progress. This strategy -- which has so far been replicated nationally in eleven states, plus the District of Columbia -- includes placing as many visits as possible during summer and fall to parents of teens entering high school -- a critical transition point for many students -- to begin building a net of support and to connect parents to the new school. Staffers also conduct summer, fall, and spring home visits between and during the sophomore and junior years to students who are at risk of not graduating because of deficiencies in course credits, the possibility of failing the state high school exit exam (a condition of graduation), or poor grades. Visits in the summer after junior year and fall of senior year are to ensure that students are on track for either career or college. Early evaluations of the program by Paul Tuss of Sacramento County Office of Education's Center for Student Assessment and Program Accountability found that students who received a home visit were considerably more likely to be successful in their exit exam intervention and academic-support classes and pass the English portion of the exit exam. A follow-up evaluation of the initial cohort of students at Luther Burbank High School showed that the students both passed the exit exam and graduated high school at significantly higher rates. (Visit the website of the Parent/Teacher Home Visit Project .)

2. Cultivate Relationships

A concerned teacher or trusted adult can make the difference between a student staying in school or dropping out. That's why secondary schools around the country are implementing advisories -- small groups of students that come together with a faculty member to create an in-school family of sorts. These advisories, which meet during the school day, provide a structured way of enabling those supporting relationships to grow and thrive. The most effective advisories meet regularly, stay together for several years, and involve staff development that helps teachers support the academic, social, and emotional needs of their students. In Texas, the Austin Independent School District began incorporating advisories into all of its high schools in 2007/2008 to ensure that all students had at least one adult in their school life who knew them well, to build community by creating stronger bonds across social groups, to teach important life skills, and to establish a forum for academic advisement and college and career coaching. (Download a PDF summary of the results of a 2010 survey about Austin's advisory program .)

3. Pay Attention to Warning Signs

Project U-Turn , a collaboration among foundations, parents, young people, and youth-serving organizations such as the school district and city agencies in Philadelphia, grew out of research that analyzed a variety of data sources in order to develop a clear picture of the nature of Philadelphia's dropout problem, get a deeper understanding of which students were most likely to drop out, and identify the early-warning signs that should alert teachers, school staff, and parents to the need for interventions. After looking at data spanning some five years, researchers were able to see predictors of students who were most at risk of not graduating .

Key indicators among eighth graders were a failing final grade in English or math and being absent for more than 20 percent of school days. Among ninth graders, poor attendance (defined as attending classes less than 70% of the time), earning fewer than two credits during 9th grade, and/or not being promoted to 10th grade on time were all factors that put students at significantly higher risk of not graduating, and were key predictors of dropping out. Armed with this information, staff members at the school district, city, and partner organizations have been developing strategies and practices that give both dropouts and at-risk students a web of increased support and services, including providing dropout-prevention specialists in several high schools, establishing accelerated-learning programs for older students who are behind on credits, and implementing reading programs for older students whose skills are well below grade level.

4. Make Learning Relevant

Boredom and disengagement are two key reasons students stop attending class and wind up dropping out of school. In "The Silent Epidemic," 47 percent of dropouts said a major reason for leaving school was that their classes were not interesting. Instruction that takes students into the broader community provides opportunities for all students -- especially experiential learners -- to connect to academics in a deeper, more powerful way.

For example, at Big Picture Learning schools throughout the country, internships in local businesses and nonprofit organizations are integrated into the regular school week. Students work with teacher advisers to find out more about what interests them and to research and locate internships; then on-the-job mentors work with students and school faculty to design programs that build connections between work life and academics. Nationwide, Big Picture schools have an on-time graduation rate of 90 percent. Watch an Edutopia video about Big Picture Schools .

5. Raise the Academic Bar

Increased rigor doesn't have to mean increased dropout rates. Higher expectations and more challenging curriculum, coupled with the support students need to be successful, have proven to be an effective strategy not only for increasing graduation rates, but also for preparing students to graduate from high school with options. In San Jose, California, the San Jose Unified School District implemented a college-preparatory curriculum for all students in 1998. Contrary to the concerns of early skeptics, the more rigorous workload didn't cause graduation rates to plummet. Recent data shows that the SJUSD has a four-year dropout rate of just 11.4 percent, compared with a statewide average of 18.2 percent.

6. Think Small

For too many students, large comprehensive high schools are a place to get lost rather than to thrive. That's why districts throughout the country are working to personalize learning by creating small schools or reorganizing large schools into small learning communities, as part of their strategy for reducing the dropout rate. A 2010 MDRC report funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation looked at the 123 "small schools of choice," or SSCs, that have opened in New York City since 2002. The report showed higher graduation rates at the new schools compared with their much larger predecessors. By the end of their first year in high school, 58.5 percent of students enrolled in SSCs were on track to graduate, compared with 48.5 percent of their peers in other schools, and by the fourth year, graduation rates increased by 6.8 percentage points.

7. Rethink Schedules

For some students, the demands of a job or family responsibilities make it impossible to attend school during the traditional bell schedule. Forward-thinking districts recognize the need to come up with alternatives. Liberty High School , a Houston public charter school serving recent immigrants, offers weekend and evening classes, providing students with flexible scheduling that enables them to work or handle other responsibilities while still attending school. Similarly, in Las Vegas, students at Cowan Sunset Southeast High School's campus can attend classes in the late afternoon and early evening to accommodate work schedules, and they may be eligible for child care, which is offered on a limited basis to help young parents continue their education. Watch an Edutopia video about Cowan Sunset High School .

8. Develop a Community Plan

In its May 2007 report " What Your Community Can Do to End Its Drop-Out Crisis ," the Center for Social Organization of Schools at Johns Hopkins University advocates development of a community-based strategy to combat the problem. Author Robert Balfanz describes three key elements of a community-driven plan: First is knowledge -- understanding the scope of the problem as well as current programs, practices, and resources targeted at addressing it. Second is strategy -- development of what Balfanz describes as a "dropout prevention, intervention, and recovery plan" that focuses community resources. Last is ongoing assessment -- regular evaluation and improvement of practices to ensure that community initiatives are having the desired effect.

9. Invest in Preschool

In their August 2007 report " The Return on Investment for Improving California's High School Graduation Rate " (PDF), Clive R. Belfield and Henry M. Levin review both evidential and promising research as well as economically beneficial interventions for addressing the dropout crisis. Preschool, they argue, is an early investment in youth that yields significant economic results later on. In their review of the research on preschool models in California and elsewhere, the authors found that one preschool program increased high school graduation rates by 11 percent, and another by 19 percent. A 2011 article published in Science by researchers who followed participants in Chicago's early childhood education program Child-Parent Center for 25 years found, among other results, that by age 28, the group that began preschool at age three or four had higher educational levels and incomes, and lower substance abuse problems.

10. Adopt a Student-Centered Funding Model

Research shows that it costs more to educate some students, including students living in poverty, English-language learners, and students with disabilities. Recognizing this need, some districts have adopted a student-centered funding model, which adjusts the funding amount based on the demographics of individual students and schools, and more closely aligns funding to their unique needs. Flexible funding enables schools with more challenging populations to gain access to more resources so they can take needed steps such as reducing class size, hiring more experienced and effective teachers, and implementing other programs and services to support students with greater needs.

Although switching to this funding model does require an infusion of new dollars -- to support the added costs associated with educating certain groups of students without reducing funds to schools with smaller at-risk populations -- many districts have already explored or are using this option, including districts in Denver, New York City, Oakland and San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Seattle, Baltimore, Hartford, Cincinnati, and the state of Hawaii, which has only one school district.

Roberta Furger is a contributing writer for Edutopia .

Back to Top

Retention Research: Studies About Keeping Kids in School

The following reports provide valuable insight into the causes of and solutions for the dropout crisis plaguing many of our schools and communities:

"Unfulfilled Promise: The Dimensions and Characteristics of Philadelphia's Dropout Crisis, 2000-2005" (PDF)

By analyzing a unique collection of both city and school district data sets over multiple years, researchers Ruth Curran Neild and Robert Balfanz were able to identify key characteristics of students most at risk for dropping out of school. The report describes the project and discusses the factors, such as grades and attendance, that are identified as predictive of high-risk students.

"The Silent Epidemic: Perspectives of High School Dropouts" (PDF)

This 2006 report, sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation , is based on interviews with young men and women, ages 16 - 25, who dropped out of high school. The findings debunk some of the commonly held myths about why students decide to drop out of school. (For example, a majority of the young people who were interviewed had at least a C average when they dropped out, and 47 percent reported that they dropped out because school was not interesting.) Embedded in these insights are useful strategies for addressing the crisis.

"Transforming the High School Experience: How New York City's New Small Schools are Boosting Student Achievement and Graduation Rates"

This 2010 report, published by the nonprofit education and social policy research organization MDRC , takes a close look at New York City’s 123 "small schools of choice," or SSCs. These schools are open to students at all levels of academic achievement, located in disadvantaged communities, and emphasize strong relationships between students and faculty. So far, they’ve also been successful at raising graduation rates.

"What Your Community Can Do to End Its Drop-Out Crisis" (PDF)

Drawing on drop-out crisis research at the national level, as well as author Robert Balfanz's decade-long experience working with middle and high schools that serve low-income students, this report provides a unique guide to tackling the issue locally. It begins with strategies for developing a deep understanding of local needs and then guides readers step by step through the creation of a comprehensive plan to assist students inside and outside of school.

"Building a Grad Nation: Progress and Challenge in Ending the High School Dropout Epidemic"

This 2011 annual update on a November 2010 report by Civic Enterprises , The Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University, and America's Promise Alliance takes a look at the big picture. It is still grim, but getting less so: For instance, the number of high schools that qualify as "dropout factories" (schools that graduate 60 percent or less of their students) has declined from 2,007 in 2002 to 1,634 in 2009. The report compares current data with national goals and explores best practices through several in-depth case studies of struggling school districts.

"On Track for Success: The Use of Early Warning Indicator and Intervention Systems to Build a Grad Nation" (PDF)

Another report from Civic Enterprises and The Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University, published in November 2011, asks how effective early intervention can be to prevent dropouts and build graduation rates. Early Warning Indicator and Intervention Systems (EWS) represent a collaborative approach by educators, administrators, parents, and communities to identify and support students at risk of not graduating. The report investigates the most successful EWS through case studies in eastern Missouri, Chicago, and Philadelphia, among others.

Last updated: 01/03/2012 by Sara Bernard

Why Students Drop Out

Even though school completion rates have continually grown during much of past 100 years, dropping out of school persists as a problem that interferes with educational system efficiency and the most straightforward and satisfying route to individual educational goals for young people. Doll, Eslami, and Walters (2013) present data from seven nationally representative studies (spanning more than 50 years) regarding reasons students drop out of high school. Some excerpts are presented below in tables; however, for a complete discussion, please see the original article: “ Understanding Why Students Drop Out of High School, According to Their Own Reports ”

The selected tables are presented in opposite order than they appear in the article so as to present the most recent data first. Note also that survey questions varied from study to study (database to database) so caution should be taken in making comparisons across years and studies.

Included in the tables presented is an analysis of whether the reasons presented are considered “push,” “pull,” or “falling out” factors. The following briefly presents an explanation from Doll et al. (2013).

Jordan et al. (1994) explained pressures on students of push and pull dropout factors. A student is pushed out when adverse situations within the school environment lead to consequences, ultimately resulting in dropout. . . . [S]tudents can be pulled out when factors inside the student divert them from completing school. . . . Watt and Roessingh (1994) added a third factor called falling out of school, which occurs when a student does not show significant academic progress in schoolwork and becomes apathetic or even disillusioned with school completion. It is not necessarily an active decision, but rather a “side-effect of insufficient personal and educational support” (p. 293).

The National Dropout Prevention Center (NDPC) exists to support those who work to improve student success and graduation rates. NDPC offers a wide range of resources and services to schools, districts, regional agencies, and states. Contact NDPC by (email:  [email protected]  or phone: (864-642-6372.).

Featured Resources

BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Dropping out of school: explaining how concerns for the family’s social-image and self-image predict anger.

• 1 Faculty of Health and Welfare, Østfold University College, Fredrikstad, Norway
• 2 PErSEUs, Sciences Humaines et Sociales, Université de Lorraine (Metz), Nancy, France

As dropping out of school is considered a violation of moral norms, the family associated with the drop out can react with anger directed toward the pupil or with anger directed at others that might know of the drop out. In our vignette study ( N = 129), we found that anger at others and anger at the pupil were significantly higher if our community participants imagined a drop out from a vocational education rather than a general education. As expected, anger directed at others was fully explained by a concern for the family’s social-image (i.e., a concern for condemnation by others), while anger directed at the former pupil was fully explained by a concern for the family’s self-image (i.e., a concern for their moral self-image). Thoughts for how to better understand family reactions in relation to drop out are discussed.

Introduction

«Hvorfor er det sånn at jeg må være flau, hvorfor må de som har valgt et yrkesfaglig program bli stemplet som dumme, teorisvake og skoleleie?» [“Why do I have to be embarrassed, how come those who choose vocational education are labeled as stupid, theoretically weak and sick of school?”] - Girl, 17 years, vocational student (interviewed in Aftenposten, 2015 , translated by us).

Even though most educational programs are organized in order to support integration into the social and professional world ( Beblavy et al., 2011 ), some pupils decide to drop out of these educational programs. As a drop out has the potential to be perceived by others as a violation of the expected egalitarian integration path ( Van Hoorn and Maseland, 2013 ), their norm violating decision is often met with stigmatizing condemnation by the larger community ( Weiner et al., 1988 ; Dorn, 1993 ; Hebl et al., 2007 ; Gausel, 2014 ). As a response to condemnation, people sometimes respond with blame ( Gausel, 2014 ) and anger ( Gausel et al., 2018 ). However, little if nothing is known about the families’ reactions and especially whether families respond with anger if their son or daughter drops out of school.

In order to investigate whether families would respond with anger to condemnation for dropping out of school, we asked community participants to imagine how a family would react if their son or daughter dropped out of an educational program. We expected that the more our participants expressed that the family would be concerned about the moral self-image of the family, the more the family would direct anger at their son or daughter (i.e., the former pupil). In contrast, the more our participants expressed that the family would be concerned about the social-image of the family, the more the family would direct anger toward others that might learn of the drop out.

Vocational Education: Dropping Out

In most western countries, the high-school (or upper secondary school) educational system consists of general education and vocational education. Even though most pupils choose vocational education in order to acquire a professional job qualification, the real-world citation by the 17-year old girl in the introduction demonstrates that vocational education has become to be viewed as a second-chance education ( Karmel and Woods, 2008 ) for pupils falsely believed to be less intelligent and thus having “a lower level of general aptitude” ( Arum and Shavit, 1995 , p.188). Due to this stigmatized belief, vocational pupils are therefore seen to be suited for professional work, instead of the more “university-oriented” general education ( Grootaers et al., 1999 ; Gausel, 2014 ). As a consequence of this stigma, many pupils within the vocational education report that they feel that others look down at them for following a vocational program ( Spruyt et al., 2015 ).

As the educational system represents the egalitarian view that everyone deserves a fair chance of bettering their position regardless of their background ( Beblavy et al., 2011 ), dropping out of the educational system represents “a serious problem, not only for the individual, the school system, and the community, but also for society.” ( Christle et al., 2007 , p. 325). Even though dropping out – in general – is understood as a problematic norm violation ( Dorn, 1993 ), dropping out from a vocational education seems to be more problematic for the pupil and its family for at least two reasons: firstly, dropping out violates the social ascension belief that members of low status groups should climb the social ladder via the educational system ( Festinger, 1954 ; Hauser et al., 2000 ). Secondly, as western people typically believe that one is responsible for one’s own fate ( Bénabou and Tirole, 2004 ), a discontinuation of schooling violates the meritocracy belief that individuals should demonstrate perseverance ( Lerner, 1980 ). Dropping out of a vocational education can therefore be perceived by the larger society as the pupil is entering a competitive labor market without formal means to partake ( Christle et al., 2007 ). Thus, the pupil is risking unemployment and dependence on welfare benefits ( Christle et al., 2007 ; King et al., 2010 ). As people generally react harshly toward norm violators ( Crocker et al., 1998 ; Major and O’Brien, 2005 ; Täuber et al., 2018 ), dropping out of vocational education has the potential to cause considerable psychological distress, not only for the pupil ( Dorn, 1993 ), but also for the family associated with the drop out ( Gausel, 2014 ) as families are commonly seen as a group ( Scabini and Manzi, 2011 ).

Anger: The Role of the Self-Image and the Social-Image

According to Gausel and Leach (2011) , a norm violation of this kind can be appraised in at least two main ways: firstly, as an indication that there is something morally defective with the family, since they allowed a violation of a societal norm (i.e., a threat to the moral self-image of the family) by failing to prevent the drop out, and thus, failing take advantage of the social ascension possibility and failing to demonstrate perseverance. Failures that are appraised as representing a threat to the self-image are often associated with anger directed at the self ( Miller and Tangney, 1994 ; Gausel and Leach, 2011 ) or one’s in-group ( Gausel and Leach, 2011 ). As it is well known that families represent a group and its members are group members (for discussions, see Scabini and Manzi, 2011 ), it is interesting to observe that on a family-related level, Gausel et al. (2016) found that participants appraising themselves as suffering from a morally defective self-image directed anger toward themselves as a consequence for their abusive behavior toward a family member. And Berndsen and McGarty (2012) found that majority group members reminded about moral failures committed by their group expressed anger at their own group in response to these failures. Similar to this, Gausel et al. (2012) found that the more their participants appraised their in-group moral failures as a threat to their in-group self-image, the more anger they directed toward their own group. Hence, in response to the current study, we expected that a concern for the self-image of the family as caused by the drop out would be predictive of self-directed anger.

Secondly, as there is a real risk that failures can draw condemning attention from others ( Gausel and Leach, 2011 ), a drop out may pose a serious threat to the family’s social-image as respectable in the eyes of others. If such a threat to the social-image is appraised, people often react with anger directed at the others that can possibly come to condemn them for their failure ( Gausel, 2013 ). In empirical support of this, a recent study on family therapy and reciprocal partner-violence, Zahl-Olsen et al. (2019) found that outburst of anger and violence toward the other was associated with appraised condemnation manifested through rejecting behavior from the other as well as criticism for failure. Gausel et al. (2018) found that the more victims of immorality feared that they would be condemned for their own perpetrating failures in a reciprocal conflict, the more they reacted with hostile anger toward others. In response to the current study, we expected that a concern for the family’s social-image would be predictive of other-directed anger.

In sum, there is ground to assume that being associated with dropping out of school can be appraised by a family as a threat to their self-image as dropping out symbolize the failure to demonstrate perseverance, as well as the failure to conform with the social ascension belief. This might very well predict anger directed at the responsible one, i.e., the pupil. That said, there is also ground to believe that the eyes of others are now critically resting on the family. Thus, being associated with dropping out of school represents a vivid threat to the social-image of the family, especially if they fear that these others get to find out about the failure. If so, the family might very well direct anger against these others.

The Current Study

In order to test the above assumptions, we returned to a large-scale study where parts have previously been reported in a manuscript by Gausel (2014) . However, none of the measures, and analyses and none of the correlations reported here in this manuscript have been examined or reported elsewhere. For the sake of clarity, we illustrate how the measures are used across the two manuscripts in Table 1 .

Table 1 . Illustration of the measures used.

In line with previous research and theorizing, we expected that our community participants would regard a drop out as a wrong decision, and that the drop out is expected to hurt the family’s self and social-image. Importantly, based on the folk-view that a vocational education can be seen as a “second-chance” education, we anticipated the following results: firstly, we expected that a drop out from a vocational education would be seen to be making the family more upset, i.e., make them angrier at the former pupil, and angrier at others, than if the drop out had happened in a general education program. Secondly, anger directed at the former pupil would be explained by a concern for the family’s self-image. In contrast, anger directed at others would be explained by a concern for the family’s social-image.

Materials and Methods

Participants.

Hundred and twenty nine community participants (62.2% women, 37.8% men; mean age : 36.1, age range : 17–74 years) agreed to partake in an anonymous, hard copy standardized questionnaire study focusing on social perceptions. They were approached individually in parks, cafes, and libraries in a medium-sized city in Norway. Participants were randomized into two conditions: “ Vocational education drop out ” ( N = 64) and “ General education drop out ” ( N = 65).

Procedure and Measures

On the first page of the questionnaire participants read the information of the study as described above and agreed to partake in the study. On the same page, we asked the participant to fill in demographics of gender and age. On the next page, “ vocational education drop out ” participants were asked to imagine the following: “ A student at the (the name of a locally known vocational education high-school) decided to drop out from the education in the middle of the semester .” Participants allocated to the “ General education drop out ” condition were asked to imagine the same thing, only now naming a locally known general education high-school. On the third page, participants were presented with standardized items measuring how this drop out could be appraised by the family of the student, and how they would respond to the drop out. When finished, participants were debriefed and thanked. All items were adopted from Gausel et al. (2012 , 2016 , 2018 ) and ranging from 1 (not at all) to 7 (very much).

Anger directed at the pupil ( α = 0.96) was measured with: “The family would be angry at the pupil,” “The family would be cross at the pupil,” and “The family would be irritated at the pupil.” Anger directed against those who know ( α = 0.93) was measured using three items: “The family would be angry at those who know what the pupil did,” “The family would be cross at those who know what the pupil did,” and “The family would be irritated at those who know what the pupil did.”

Appraisals of Social-Image and Self-Image

The appraisal of being condemned by others, and thus causing damage to the family’s social image ( α = 0.87) was measured using three statements: “The family will think they can be isolated from others because of this,” “The family will think that their reputation can damaged because of what the pupil did,” and “The family will think that others might not have the same respect for them because of this.” The appraisal of damage to the family’s moral self-image ( α = 0.89) was measured with three statements: “The family will think that what the pupil did represented a moral failure in the family,” “The family will think they are defective in one way or another,” and “The family will think this represents a “black mark” in their shared memory.”

Appraising the Drop Out as Wrong

We measured whether participants appraised the dropout as wrong ( α = 0.85) using four items: “What the pupil did was wrong,” “What the pupil did was bad,” “What the pupil did was doubtful,” and “What the pupil did was not good.”

Participants View of Dropping Out of School as Wrong or Not

A one way ANOVA using IBM SPSS 22 (see Table 2 for scale inter-correlations and descriptive statistics) made it clear that participants considered it wrong to drop out from college irrelevant of education, F (1,128) = 1.16, p = 0.28, partial η 2 = 0.01. Interestingly, they saw dropping out from the vocational education as slightly more wrong than from a general education ( M = 4.28, SD = 1.67 and M = 3.97, SD = 1.54, respectively).

Table 2 . Scale inter-correlations and descriptive statistics.

A Concern for Self-Image and Social-Image

A Multivariate ANOVA demonstrated no significant overall effect on the appraisal of self-image and social-image, F (2,126) = 0.587, p = 0.56, partial η 2 = 0.01. A univariate analysis on each of the two variables showed that participants in the “ Vocational education drop out ” and the “ General education drop out ,” saw the drop out of school as equally damaging to the family’s self-image, F (1,127) = 1.16, p = 0.284, partial η 2 = 0.01 ( M = 2.67, SD = 1.53 and M = 2.40, SD = 1.31, respectively), and the family’s social-image, F (1,127) = 0.73, p = 0.395, partial η 2 = 0.01, ( M = 2.51, SD = 1.39 and M = 2.30, SD = 1.30, respectively) even though the means were a bit higher for participants in the vocational education drop out condition.

Participants View on Anger Directed at the Pupil and Anger Directed at Others

A Multivariate ANOVA demonstrated an overall effect on our main dependent variables of anger, F (2,123) = 3.10, p = 0.049, partial η 2 = 0.05. As expected, there was a significant univariate effect on anger directed at others who would know about the drop out, F (1,124) = 4.51, p = 0.036, partial η 2 = 0.04. The pairwise comparison showed that participants in the “ Vocational education drop out ” condition considered it as more likely that the family would be angry at others who knew about the drop out ( M = 1.97, SD = 1.27), than did participants in the “ General education drop out ” condition ( M = 1.55, SD = 0.95). As expected, there was a significant univariate effect on anger directed at the pupil, F (1,124) = 4.53, p = 0.035, partial η 2 = 0.04. The pairwise comparison demonstrated that participants in the “ Vocational education drop out ” condition considered it likely that the family would be more angry with the pupil ( M = 3.51, SD = 1.74), than did participants in the “ General education drop out ” condition ( M = 2.88, SD = 1.58).

Structural Equation Modeling: Explaining Direction of Anger

In order to explain anger directed at the pupil and anger directed at others, we specified a latent model using Structural Equation Modeling with AMOS 22 software. Mirroring the two conditions, we used effect coding (vocational education drop out = +1 and general education drop out = −1) in order to trace the main effects of the experimental conditions (represented with a manifest variable) on our two main dependent variables; anger directed at the self and anger directed at others. Since we expected a concern for the family’s self-image and concerns for the family’s social-image to explain the relationship with anger, we allowed them to mediate the relationship between the experimental conditions and the two anger variables (see Figure 1 ). This model fit the data very well, χ 2 (56) = 80.65, p = 0.017, χ 2 / df = 1.44, IFI = 0.982, CFI = 0.982, RMSEA = 0.059.

Figure 1 . Structural path model of the manipulation on concerns for self-image and social-image and their link to the two angers. Solid lines illustrate significant relationships ( * p < 0.05).

As seen in the upper half of Figure 1 , the original link between the experimental conditions and anger directed at the pupil ( β = 0.19, p = 0.031) dropped to non-significant ( β = 0.14, p = 0.077), indicating that the relationship was mediated by concern for the family’s self-image. In contrast, as we argued that the motivation behind anger directed at others was a concern for the family’s social-image, the lower half of Figure 1 illustrate that the original link between the experimental conditions and anger directed at others ( β = 0.20, p = 0.032) dropped to non-significant ( β = 0.14, p = 0.062). Hence, anger at others was mediated by concern for the family’s self-image.

Even though there can be good reasons for dropping out of an educational program, a drop out generally violates societal norms (e.g., Dorn, 1993 ; Gausel, 2014 ) such as the meritocracy norm of perseverance ( Lerner, 1980 ) and taking advantage of the possibility to climb the social ladder via the educational system ( Festinger, 1954 ; Hauser et al., 2000 ; Van Hoorn and Maseland, 2013 ). Probably therefore, our community participants considered dropping out to be moderately wrong regardless of the educational path, and by such, they lend support to Christle et al. (2007) view that a drop out represents a serious challenge, not only for the society but also for the school system, the community and the individual. Similarly, the decision to drop out was also viewed by the participants as a cause for concern in regard of both the family’s self-image and its social-image. This finding support Gausel and Leach (2011) argumentation that a failure to adhere to norms will likely threaten the self-image and the social-image of the individual (or group) associated with the failure.

In line with our hypotheses, we found that participants expected the family to be angrier at the former pupil for dropping out of vocational education than if dropping out of a general education. This is understandable, because expressing anger at the pupil might communicate that the family is disappointed over the decision to drop out of vocational education in an increasingly competitive labor market ( Grootaers et al., 1999 ; Van Hoorn and Maseland, 2013 ). Moreover, since anger directed at the former pupil was explained by concern for moral self-image, the findings support the arguments of Gausel and Leach (2011) that a threat to self-image will likely motivate self-directed anger.

Also in line with our hypotheses, we found that participants in the vocational education condition expected the family to be angrier at others for the drop out than did those in the general education condition. As expected, the motivation to direct anger at others was explained by the concern for loss of respect in the eyes of others (i.e., the threat to the family’s social-image). This finding is in line with Gausel and Leach (2011) argument that the threat to the social-image is a motivator of anti-social responses and hostility. Moreover, this finding bears resemblance to Zahl-Olsen et al. (2019) findings where anger and violence in families seems to be fueled by rejecting criticism for failure. It also lends support to Gausel et al. (2018) findings that victims of failures reacted with hostile anger toward others due to the fears that their social-image would be damaged. By such, it appears that the community participants expected reactions similar to those reported in recent research and theorizing on anger and anti-social motivations.

Possible Limitations

It should be underlined that our study focused on how people in general think a family would respond to a drop out. Naturally, it would be ideal to investigate how actual families of those who drop out would respond to our research questions. Even though this might be seen as a more “natural” approach, it is useful to remember that the vignette method has been found to produce results equal to other ecological methods ( Robinson and Clore, 2001 ) only without the ethical dilemmas attached with real-world challenges. Moreover, as people are good at imagining how others and themselves would feel and do in various situations (e.g., Decety and Grèzes, 2006 ), the vignette design seems to be a useful tool on topics such as failures and how to cope with them.

That said, one should be aware of the practical and ethical difficulties to find and locate families with pupils that have dropped out of school. In relation to the practical difficulties of locating them, we can inform that we first tried to contact the two different schools mentioned in our scenario in order to gain information about the drop outs. However, we were not granted this information and were thus left in the dark in response to locating these families. That said, out of ethical concerns, families of those who drop out might already have been exposed for stigmatizing attitudes and thus have experienced many emotional and practical hardships. One can imagine that if we were to locate them, it might not be welcomed if we were to address them about something they might very well be angry about.

Another limitation rests within the participant pool. We did not check if they had background from a vocational or a general education, and thus, we cannot guarantee that this would not have influenced their perception of drop out from the one or the other educational programs. Moreover, we did not ask for, and therefore could not control for whether their level of education influenced the results in any way. That said, we aimed for a randomized pool of community participants (instead of the more “normal” student participant pool) that were more or less mature participants with a mean-age of 36 years. We do believe that these participants have enough life-experience to be more moderate in their beliefs about the world than younger ones. Hence, we rest assured that the results based on the feedback from our participants can be trusted.

Practical Thoughts

Our findings indicate that professional helpers working with drop outs might meet families that, ironically, communicate anger instead of gratitude for the help they are given. If so, it could be helpful to know that this anger is likely explained by their fear of condemnation and feared damage to their social-image as a respectable family for the “failure” to prevent their son or daughter from dropping out of an educational program. Moreover, if the family is angry at the former pupil then the professional helper might see that their anger can be explained by the worry that there is a moral failure within the family since they could not prevent the drop out. In any way, we think helpers can use our model to better understand how families cope with the social and family-related challenges that a norm violating drop out might represent.

Data Availability Statement

The datasets generated for this study are available on request to the corresponding author.

Ethics Statement

The studies involving human participants were reviewed through the standardized checklist of the Norwegian Centre for Research Data and found not to be subject to notification. Written informed consent from the participants’ legal guardian/next of kin was not required to participate in this study in accordance with the national legislation and the institutional requirements.

Author Contributions

NG did the design and analysis and contributed to the interpretation of the data, theoretical framework and write-up, and approved submission. DB contributed to the interpretation of the data, theoretical framework and write-up, and approved submission. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Agnes Serine Bossum, Linda Lie Christensen, Cathrine Solum Hansen, and Kine Maria Laup Karlsen, Fredrikstad, Norway, for their help collecting data as part of their Bachelor-thesis.

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Keywords: self, social, image, dropping out, school, anger, stigma, family

Citation: Gausel N and Bourguignon D (2020) Dropping Out of School: Explaining How Concerns for the Family’s Social-Image and Self-Image Predict Anger. Front. Psychol . 11:1868. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01868

Received: 12 February 2020; Accepted: 07 July 2020; Published: 04 August 2020.

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Copyright © 2020 Gausel and Bourguignon. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Nicolay Gausel, [email protected]

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Encyclopedia of Adolescence pp 1765–1771 Cite as

High School Dropouts

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High school dropouts are the focus of this essay. First, after mentioning the repercussions of dropping out for individuals and for societies, this essay highlights the similarities and differences among several different measures of dropping out and discusses the implications of these differences for estimates of the magnitude of the dropout problem. A summary of various theories regarding why dropouts leave school follows, along with identification of the major risk factors for dropping out of school.

Consequences of Dropping Out

Teens make many important decisions and undergo many transitions throughout adolescence. The decision whether to persist with formal education or to leave high school is one of the most important decisions they make, as this decision has long-lasting repercussions. For many students, this is far from an easy decision, as they face the sometimes confusing sum of forces such as disciplinary policies, employment opportunities, residential mobility, and...

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Stearns, E. (2018). High School Dropouts. In: Levesque, R.J.R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Adolescence. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-33228-4_58

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Dropouts Now Face a Steeper Climb to Earn a Diploma Post-Pandemic

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More than two years of academic and emotional disruptions during the pandemic have significantly increased both the number of students who dropped out of high school and the intensity of support needed to get them back on track.

Across the country, more districts are opening or expanding dropout-recovery programs—via district alternative schools, charters and contracted services—the educators in these programs say they must provide more hands-on care than before the pandemic for students disenchanted with online remote learning.

“Pre-pandemic, if a school district had a dropout-prevention program, or they had an alternative school in their system, once they set students up, they just kind of left them there,” said Raymond McNulty, the president of the National Dropout Prevention Center and a former Vermont education commissioner.

“What we’re seeing now is schools taking a deeper look at their alternative schools, a deeper look at online services that they provide,” he said. “I think we’re seeing a lot of growth in schools recognizing the needs of our kids were greater than the academics and [recognizing] a lot of the issues around kids managing their own behaviors and the stresses and trauma of growing up in the world today.”

Acceleration Academies, a network of 14 dropout-recovery centers serving more than 2,800 students nationwide, has seen a dramatic uptick in demand. Margaret Sharp, the chief education officer for the network, which operates under partnerships with districts, said that while the number of students overall has risen since 2020, the growth in the number of students entering the academies needing more than 15 credits to graduate—the highest tier of need—has been especially high. The number of students doubled from 500 to more than 1,000. Acceleration has opened five new academies in the last eight months alone in Florida, Kansas, South Carolina, and Texas because of rising demand, with three more opening this fall in Florida and Georgia.

Similarly, Superintendent Wayne Lovell of Mountain Education Charter High School, a network of 18 campuses across north Georgia that serves returning students and those at risk of dropping out of school districts in the region, said two-thirds of students now arrive two to three years behind on credits.

And Janice Mills, the principal of Spectrum Academy, a 6-12 grades reengagement school in Martin County, Fla., tells a similar story. While before the pandemic, Spectrum served 80 to 90 students at a time, the Florida school ended the last school year with a roster of 170 students and expects more than 150 this fall.

Acceleration, Mountain Education, and Spectrum all use hybrid online platforms for students to access classes and assignments at home or on campus, but educators at the schools said they use more intensive in-person academic tutoring, mental health programs, and other wraparound services now than they did before the pandemic, as students’ needs have intensified.

Students Share Their Stories on the Climb Back Up

Find out how three teenagers who fell off track in the thick of the pandemic found their way back on a path to high school graduation.

Florida, for example, announced at the start of the 2021-22 school year that it was reinstating end-of-course exams, which had been waived from graduation requirements in 2020 and 2021. In response, Spectrum launched intensive math courses to help students catch up enough to take the tests. It also held after-school tutoring sessions and academic “boot camps” in July, after Martin County schools’ summer school programs normally end, to help students who need to pass Florida’s exams in reading and math or the ACT and SAT college-entrance tests.

What happened during remote learning, Mills said, was that “if students were determined to access the resources they needed to get good grades in the classes, they could do that, but students still ended up doing it with a lot of unexcused absences.”

But “many other students just kind of fell off, not attending and not doing the work, so we have to track them down,” she added.

For example, Aubrianna Morris said she was on track to graduate in 2021 from her North Charleston, S.C., high school before the pandemic. After more than a year of remote instruction, however, Morris left her school when she found she would have to retake a full semester of courses she already had taken online because she had not completed them during remote learning. Morris had already started working, and her mother persuaded her to attend the recovery program Lowcountry Acceleration Academy instead.

While Acceleration still uses an online platform for courses, teachers assess each student now on their academic needs as well as nonacademic barriers to graduating, such as family and work responsibilities, mental and physical health issues, and transportation or technology needs. Morris, for example, said she took one class at a time from 10 a.m. to noon before working weekday afternoons. Morris graduated from Lowcountry this February and has joined the U.S. Army.

Mentoring provides key support

Many programs have also upped their game by investing more heavily in individual mentoring and social-emotional supports for students, both through staff and community groups.

“Our kids typically do come to us having experienced some sort of trauma, but we are seeing more and more kids coming to us with trauma and mental health issues. It’s not unusual for us to see kids suffering with suicidal ideation,” said Sharp of Acceleration Academies. Acceleration now assigns each student a “life coach”—a licensed therapist or social worker—as well as a career coach for postsecondary guidance.

Mountain Education schools in Georgia used a different strategy, asking more than 1,000 teachers and staff members to write about their life experiences and the social-emotional lessons they had learned. Dubbed “Ridgerider Tales,” these essays became the backbone of a new social-emotional curriculum to teach students how to cope with anxiety, depression, problem solving, and other issues students reported as their biggest challenges during the pandemic.

“We recognized that it was going to be imperative to get the students back to a place where they felt safe and secure and felt supported at school,” Lovell said.

Teams of English teachers and counselors developed activities and lessons for each essay aligned to five social-emotional competencies: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decisionmaking.

“So now, when a student enrolls, we do an initial assessment with regard to their [social-emotional] competencies, and then the student and mentor sit down with some of these tales to process,” said Martha Kent, the director of student and staff wellness at Mountain Education. “When students are learning through the narrative in elementary school, they’re identifying with the characters in a story. Well, these stories are not fictional; these, our kids know, came from our staff. So it makes it easier for kids to identify with them.” Students who are struggling with specific problems, such as caring for a sick family member, also get connected with staff members who had faced similar problems in the past.

The schools provide free mental health services, and each student creates a self-care plan in addition to their academic-recovery plan. Mountain Education created its own wellness app to help students access resources and track their goals.

Spectrum, meanwhile, now trains all staff to be certified in trauma-informed instruction, and everyone from teachers to school secretaries to Mills herself has been enlisted to conduct home visits after district social workers became overwhelmed.

“There are so many students needing to be addressed throughout the county, we had to start to think outside the box,” Mills said. “It’s much more important that someone from our school team shows up at the house to say, ‘Where’s Johnny? Why hasn’t he been here?’ and get down to the root cause of what’s happening.”

Each student has weekly in-person meetings with their school mentors, as well as phone or email check-ins throughout the week. Students also attend weekly “lunch and learn” sessions with outside community groups and employers to answer questions about local careers and trades, ending with a session on applying for jobs and “interview speed dating” with local companies. So far, Mills said, all the students who have participated in the program have been offered at least one job after graduation.

“I think in the long run, we don’t just want kids that are academic graduates. We want our graduates to be thoughtful and caring. We want them to be balanced. We want them to have a strong sense of how to plan and manage their time,” McNulty said. “Because I think the essence of education is not to be successful in school but to be successful when you leave school.”

A version of this article appeared in the September 07, 2022 edition of Education Week as Dropouts Now Face a Steeper Climb to Earn A Diploma Post-Pandemic

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Essay on Why Students Dropout Of School

Students are often asked to write an essay on Why Students Dropout Of School in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Why Students Dropout Of School

Financial problems.

Many students leave school because their families need help with money. Sometimes, they have to work to help their families instead of going to school. This makes it hard for them to keep studying.

Family Issues

Some students face problems at home, like taking care of family members or not getting enough support. This can make it tough for them to focus on school and lead them to drop out.

Academic Struggles

School can be really hard for some students. If they find the lessons too difficult and don’t get the help they need, they might decide to leave school.

Lack of Interest

A few students might not find school interesting or useful for their future. They might not see the point in staying if they don’t enjoy it or think it will help them later in life.

250 Words Essay on Why Students Dropout Of School

Why students dropout of school.

There are many reasons why students drop out of school. Some students drop out because they are struggling with their studies. They may be failing classes, or they may feel like they are not challenged enough. Other students drop out because they are dealing with personal problems, such as family issues, financial problems, or health problems. Still, other students drop out because they simply do not enjoy school. They may feel like they are not learning anything, or they may not see the value in a high school diploma.

Financial Issues

Some students drop out of school because they need to work to help support their families. They may have parents who are unable to work, or they may have younger siblings who rely on them for financial support.

Family Problems

Some students drop out of school because they are dealing with family problems. They may have parents who are fighting or getting divorced, or they may have relatives who are struggling with addiction or mental illness. These problems can make it difficult for students to focus on their schoolwork.

Health Problems

Some students drop out of school because they are dealing with health problems. They may have a chronic illness that makes it difficult for them to attend school regularly, or they may have a mental health condition that makes it difficult for them to focus or learn.

Lack of Engagement

Some students drop out of school because they are not engaged in their classes. They may find the material boring or irrelevant, or they may feel like they are not learning anything. They may also feel like they are not connected to their teachers or classmates.

500 Words Essay on Why Students Dropout Of School

Problems at home.

Some students drop out of school because they have problems at home. These problems can include poverty, abuse, neglect, or instability. Students who come from low-income families are more likely to drop out of school than students from wealthier families. Students who experience abuse or neglect are also more likely to drop out of school. Similarly, students whose parents are often absent or moving around are more likely to drop out of school.

Problems At School

Some students drop out of school because they have problems at school. These problems can include academic difficulties, bullying, or a lack of support from teachers and administrators. Students who are struggling academically are more likely to drop out of school. Students who are bullied are also more likely to drop out of school. And students who do not feel supported by their teachers and administrators are more likely to drop out of school.

Peer Pressure

Some students drop out of school because of peer pressure. Students who have friends who drop out of school are more likely to drop out of school themselves. Students who feel like they do not fit in at school are also more likely to drop out of school. Similarly, students who are involved in gangs or other delinquent activities are more likely to drop out of school.

Lack Of Motivation

Some students drop out of school because they lack motivation. Students who do not see the value in education are more likely to drop out of school. Particularly, students who do not have clear goals for the future are more likely to drop out of school. Students who do not enjoy school are also more likely to drop out of school.

There are many reasons why students drop out of school. Some of these reasons include problems at home, problems at school, peer pressure, and lack of motivation. By understanding the reasons why students drop out of school, we can take steps to prevent it from happening.

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How to Help Prevent Students from Dropping Out of School

Last Updated: November 25, 2023 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Jai Flicker and by wikiHow staff writer, Hannah Madden . Jai Flicker is an Academic Tutor and the CEO and Founder of Lifeworks Learning Center, a San Francisco Bay Area-based business focused on providing tutoring, parental support, test preparation, college essay writing help, and psychoeducational evaluations to help students transform their attitude toward learning. Jai has over 20 years of experience in the education management industry. He holds a BA in Philosophy from the University of California, San Diego. There are 15 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 94,868 times.

Every year, over 1 million children drop out of high school without getting their diploma. [1] X Trustworthy Source Edutopia Educational nonprofit organization focused on encouraging and celebrating classroom innovation Go to source Leaving school without a high school diploma can lead to poorer health, lower-paying jobs, and long-term poverty. [2] X Trustworthy Source Edutopia Educational nonprofit organization focused on encouraging and celebrating classroom innovation Go to source If you’re a teacher or faculty member, there are a few ways you can motivate your students to stay in school and keep them on the path toward education.

Connect with parents outside of school.

• You can also give parents access to their children’s online grades. That way, they can keep track of how well their child is doing throughout the year instead of waiting on a report card.
• Not every child has supportive parents, so this might not be possible. If that’s the case, focus on helping your student while they’re in school rather than relying on their parents.

Make connections with your at-risk students.

• If there are any children in your class who are at-risk, consider meeting with them after school once a week to check in.
• Being honest with your students will help build a relationship much faster than trying to sugarcoat things.

Involve students in extracurricular activities.

• Some students may not want to do an extracurricular activity (or have the time) and that’s okay too. Let them focus on their studies for now, and bring it up again later on.
• Most extracurricular activities require passing grades to participate, which is another good motivation to stay in school and make good grades.

Pair students with advisors.

• If you don’t have that many advisors, you can save appointments for children who are most at-risk of failing or dropping out.
• Academic advisors can also help students plan for their academic future, like applying for colleges or trade schools.

Connect lessons to the real world.

• For example, you could find internships in your community and give children school credit for attending them once a week.
• If you’re a science teacher, take your students on field trips to natural areas around the school as you talk about botany or climate change.

Challenge children who may be bored.

• Some kids might even be so advanced that they can take college classes while still in high school. Many community colleges have programs for younger students to start getting college credit even before they graduate.

Get flexible with the school schedule.

• Night classes are very helpful for students who might have to work during the day to help support their families.

Reduce the cost of education.

• For example, you could have your students rent textbooks from the library instead of buying them.
• Or, you could ask your department to provide equipment that you need for class instead of asking your students to buy it.

Offer mental health support.

• If your school doesn’t have a mental health program, talk to a nearby community college. They may be able to provide resources on a sliding scale for students in need.

Teach children about career and salary realties.

• Try to talk about other paths besides a traditional 4-year college. Trade schools and 2-year programs are becoming more and more popular, and they can lead to some great professions.

Try a mentoring or tutor program.

• Older students can also be great tutors. You could try pairing 9th graders with 12th graders for help in English, math, or science.

Provide community resources.

• You don’t have to force your students to participate in any of these programs, and some may not want to. Just provide the resources for students who do want it just in case.

Teach children good study habits for college.

• The Cornell notes strategy is a great one to teach students for effective studying.

Pay special attention to at-risk students.

• Many students who fail classes early on have a hard time catching up in time for graduation. You could try an accelerated credit program to get these students the courses they need to graduate from high school.

Expert Q&A

• Every student is different. Try to give each one individual attention if you can. Thanks Helpful 10 Not Helpful 1

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://www.edutopia.org/student-dropout-retention-strategies
• ↑ https://www.edutopia.org/article/teacher-parent-communication-strategies-start-year-right/
• ↑ https://www.apa.org/education-career/k12/relationships
• ↑ https://nces.ed.gov/pubs95/web/95741.asp
• ↑ https://nacada.ksu.edu/Resources/Academic-Advising-Today/View-Articles/Why-Should-Academic-Advisors-Care-About-Students-Sense-of-Belonging.aspx
• ↑ https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED534566
• ↑ https://www.edutopia.org/discussion/7-ways-increase-students-attention-span
• ↑ https://positivepsychology.com/time-management/
• ↑ https://www.unicef.org/northmacedonia/free-and-open-digital-tools-support-remote-learning-during-temporary-school-closures
• ↑ https://www2.ed.gov/documents/students/supporting-child-student-social-emotional-behavioral-mental-health.pdf
• ↑ https://www.bls.gov/careeroutlook/2015/article/career-planning-for-high-schoolers.htm
• ↑ https://www.readingrockets.org/topics/tutoring-and-volunteering/articles/developing-tutoring-program
• ↑ https://www.apa.org/monitor/2012/02/at-risk-students
• ↑ https://www.edutopia.org/discussion/11-habits-effective-teacher
• ↑ https://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/teachingresources/practice/Pages/insight-feedback.aspx

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Home / Essay Samples / Education / School / Dropping Out of School

Dropping Out of School Essay Examples

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