The problem of high school students dropping out is a subject of growing concern of modern educators both on domestic and international levels. The gravity of the issue is exacerbated by the long-term impact of high dropout rates, since the total standard of the national educational system gets lower. Despite the fact that scholars have established multiple causes that explain dropping out of high school students, larger patterns describing students’ leaving high school have been identified. This essay looks into several dominant factors that are accountable for high school students’ dropping out.
Fall & Greg (2012) relate all reasons behind the dropping out issue to the impact of two critical factors. These are students’ self-perception and social context. The latter is normally associated with the normative value system of the high school students’ family members and peers; the former is related to high school students’ perceptions of their academic standing and their perspective on their place in the social system they are a part of (namely, the social milieu of the school). Interestingly, Fall & Greg (2012) have found that those students who have had better academic and behavioral achievements by the time they start the 10th grade are far less likely to drop out (Fall & Greg, 2012).
Use your promo and get a custom paper on
"High School Dropouts".
In a similar vein, Jeffrey, Kostandini, & Mykerezi (2012) relate high school dropouts to the factors of family characteristics, relative wealth, and parents’ academic level. Importantly, no significant differences have been found between the rates of high school students who drop out from urban and rural schools. The findings of Jeffrey, Kostandini, & Mykerezi provide complimentary data to the research discussed in the previous paragraph. Specifically, they detail the major influencing elements of the social context factor: such as characteristics of the family, wealth status, and parents’ level of education.
In summary, the two major factors that impact dropping out of high school students are the social context and students’ self-perception. With reference to the social context, family characteristics (especially, wealth and parents’ academic level) play an important role.
- Fall, A.-M. & Roberts, G. (2012). High school dropouts: Interactions between social context, self-perceptions, school engagement, and student dropout. Journal of Adolescence, 35(4), 787-798.
- Jordan, J., Kostandini, G., & Mykerezi, E. (2012) Rural and urban high school dropout rates: Are they different? Journal of Research in Rural Education, 27(12), 1-21.
