NCJ Number
129690
Editor(s)
L Weis,
E Farrar,
H G Petrie
Date Published
1989
Length
238 pages
Annotation
The problem of school dropouts is examined in relation to student characteristics, school practices and policies, and cultural and economic perspectives.
Abstract
The role and responsibility of schools to prevent students from dropping out is discussed. An analysis of the type of high school dropouts follows with particular focus on low-income adolescent women in urban areas and rural school dropouts in Braxton County schools in West Virginia. The trend of black working class students to drop out of the academic culture of the school and to adopt an alternative sport culture is examined in Canada, Britain, and the United States. Inside schools, the analysis focuses on the organization and delivery of social services to students, the quality of urban teaching, the role of competency testing, and student alienation. A critical perspective within a wider context is provided for a discussion of dropping out among involuntary minorities and for the role of economics in the dropout problem. For related chapter see NCJ 129691-129700