Why Do Students Drop Out?

• While there is no single reason for why students drop out, research indicates that difficult transitions to high school, deficient basic skills, and a lack of engagement all serve as prominent barriers to graduation.

• Low attendance or a failing grade can identify future dropouts, and in some cases as early as sixth grade.5 Most dropouts are already on the path to failure in the middle grades and engage in behaviors that strongly correlate to dropping out in high school. Various researchers have identified low attendance or a failing grade as specific risk factors.

• Up to 40 percent of ninth-grade students in cities with the highest dropout rates repeat ninth grade; only 10 to 15 percent of those repeaters go on to graduate.6 Ninth grade serves as a bottleneck for many students who begin their first year only to find that their academic skills are insufficient for high school-level work.

• Over one third of all dropouts are lost in ninth grade.7Academic success in ninth-grade coursework is highly predictive of eventual graduation; this is even more so than demographic characteristics or prior academic achievement.8 Unfortunately, many students are not given the extra support they need to make a successful transition to high school and are lost in ninth grade.

• The six million secondary students who comprise the lowest 25 percent of achievement are twenty times more likely to drop out of high school than students in the top-performing quartile.9 Among high school students whose test scores were in the top quartile of their senior class, less than one percent dropped out. Among the high school students whose test scores were in the bottom quartile of their senior class, twenty percent dropped out.

• Research shows that a lack of student engagement is predictive of dropping out even after controlling for academic achievement and student background.10 Both academic and social engagement are integral components of successfully navigating the education pipeline.