NCJ Number
161294
Date Published
1995
Length
11 pages
Annotation
Data from a national longitudinal study examined high school outcomes and their relationship to risk factors that can be identified at the beginning of high school.
Abstract
At-risk students in 8th grade were defined as those who lived in single-parent families, had family incomes of less than $15,000, had an older sibling who had dropped out of school, had parents who did not finish high school, had limited proficiency in English, or were at home without adult supervision more than 3 hours a day. Approximately 26 percent of 8th graders in the group studied in the spring of 1988 had one of these characteristics, and an additional 20 percent had two or more. Student with two or more of these risk factors were more likely than those with no risk factors to have low grades and perform poorly on a standardized test measuring eighth-grade achievement. Four years later, only 60 percent of those with multiple risk factors graduated from high school on time, compared to 90 percent of students with no risk factors. Sixty-five percent of students with multiple risk factors failed to complete a basic sequence of high school courses, compared to 37 percent of those with no risk factors. Nineteen percent of 8th graders who had multiple risk factors in 1988 had a child in 1992, compared to 5 percent of those with no risk factors. Finally, students with multiple risk factors were more likely than others to report getting into trouble at school, being transferred or suspended for disciplinary reasons, being arrested, and being sent to a juvenile home or detention center. Tables and figures