Education Commons^™

Dropping Out: Why Students Leave School, Joseph R. Boyle

MERC Publications

Previous research has indicated that students permanently leave school for a number of reasons including low grades, overage, high absentee rate, behavior problems, pregnancy, work, family problems, or drugs/alcohol. While many of these factors are often described in nebulous terms, the purpose of this study was to examine specific academic factors within the classroom that lead up to students’ permanent departure from school, and to learn firsthand, from students who have dropped out of school.

The purpose of this study was to use qualitative in-depth interviews of students who had left school for academic reasons, to identify specific factors in …