Dropping Out: Why Students Drop Out of High School and What Can Be Done About It

Posted by on February 19, 2012

Forum Brief – Dropping Out: Why Students Drop Out of High School and What Can Be Done About It – November 18, 2011

The vast majority of youth in developed nations finish high school, many more than in the United States, where the national high school graduation rate is about 70%. In his new book Dropping Out: Why Students Drop Out of High School and What Can Be Done About It, Russell Rumberger, Professor of Education, University of California, Santa Barbara offers a comprehensive overview of the dropout crisis in America, and addresses the fundamental questions of who drops out, why they drop out, and what happens when they do. Rumberger identifies challenges in current reform efforts, including an insufficient targeting of the true dropout factories, inadequate funding, and a lack of attention paid to the cost, sustainability, and scalability of interventions. Following Rumberger’s presentation, a panel including Daniel Fuller, Vice President, Communities In Schools, Elizabeth Grant, Special Assistant, US Department of Education, and Cassius Johnson, Associate Vice President, Jobs for the Future, provided their insight for policy reform at the federal, state, and local levels to reduce the incidence of high school dropouts.

http://www.aypf.org/forumbriefs/2011/documents/Dropping%20Out%20Forum%20Brief.pdf