ADOLESCENCE AND DROPOUT SUMMARY REPORT: STUDENTS MOST LIKELY
TO DROP OUT AND WHAT CAN BE DONE ABOUT IT?
School failure has been an interest of mine since I learned that someone I knew in grade school dropped out before graduation. I wanted to learn more about it in hopes that I could better understand the phenomenon. What I learned was that school failure is a growing problem in America with statistical analyses indicating that the majority of students who drop out are minorities (Jacobsen & Hofmann, 1997).
I also learned that, according to Robertson (1997), a number of factors are significant contributors to school failure. These factors include: being retained in the same grade, poor grades, high levels of absenteeism, lack of psychoemotional connection with school, behavioral problems requiring frequent discipline, lack of confidence in one's ability to succeed, having a limited notion of future goals. According to Robertson, when one or more of the above factors are operating in a student's life, he or she is a high risk for school failure and very likely to drop out if steps are not taken to remediate the situation.
Backes (1994) as well as Orenstein (1994) feel that there is a gender contribution to drop out, noting that among girls, those dropping out of school show strong declines in self-esteem and school performance following adolescence. It is noted that the relationship between a decline in self-concept and a decline in achievement indicates that identifying the special needs of female students at school and at home should be a high priority for parents and teachers, and that based on the identification of these needs, schools should design appropriate interventions.
In addition to identifying and designing interventions that assist young female adolescents, Baker and Sansone (1990) reports that there are several different strategies that both parents and schools can use to prevent school dropout f...