Dropouts in America

Résumé du livre

Dropouts are defined throughout this document (including in its graphic displays) as: early school leavers, expelled, intermittent learners, leftouts, pushouts, stopouts, suspended, and truants. Sufficient research has been done about school dropouts to begin a comprehensive solution. Schools and other institutions must mobilize the knowledge to devise ways of: (1) identifying at risk youth early in their school career, (2) intervening in their personal lives with a unique array of prevention services through longitudinal case management, (3) using skills-training programs to alleviate the crisis of incompetence which alienates dropouts from the labor market, (4) improving training for educators and social service staff, and (5) establishing a state level monitoring agency. In a rebuttal statement by a member of the publication's advisory board, the report is praised for its sense of urgency and commitment, but two caveats are added: (1) research on the problems of dropouts is not yet adequate regarding the implementation or impact of various programs and policies, and (2) ways to coordinate the proposed services to dropouts and at risk youth are vague and lack the framework needed to create an organized efficient agency at the state level. (VM)