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High School Dropouts in the United States

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School Dropout and Completion

Abstract

One of the major educational challenges in virtually all industrialised nations is raising the education level of the workforce. This includes getting more students to complete upper secondary school or what is referred to as ‘high school’ in the United States. Completing high school is increasingly viewed as a minimal requirement for entry into the labour market and for further, post-secondary education. In fact, with the economy generating an increasing number of jobs that require at least some post-secondary schooling, students who earn no more than a high school diploma will most likely have diminishing economic prospects in the future economy.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    A course credit is known as a Carnegie unit and represents the credit received for completing a 1-year course.

  2. 2.

    Based on Common Core Data. Retrieved February 7, 2009, from http://nces.ed.gov/ccd/bat/output.asp

  3. 3.

    See Defining and Calculating Event Dropout Rates Using the CCD. Retrieved July 20, 2009, from http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2007/dropout05/DefiningAndCalculating.asp

  4. 4.

    See Defining and Calculating Dropout and Completion Rates Using the CPS. Retrieved July 20, 2009, from http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2007/dropout05/DefiningDropoutAndCompletion.asp

  5. 5.

    See Dropout Guidelines for October 2008 CBEDS. Retrieved July 20, 2009, from http://www.cde.ca.gov/ds/sd/cb/dropoutguide.asp

  6. 6.

    See final regulations for the federal Title I of the No Child Left Behind Act issued in October 2008. Retrieved July 20, 2009, from http://www.ed.gov/policy/elsec/reg/proposal/uniform-grad-rate.html

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Gevirtz Graduate School of Education, University of California, Santa Barbara, United States

    Russell W. Rumberger

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  1. Russell W. Rumberger
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Education, University of Melbourne, Parkville, 3010, Victoria, Australia

    Stephen Lamb

  2. NIFU STEP, Wergelandsveien 7, Oslo, 0167, Norway

    Eifred Markussen

  3. , Centre for Post-Compulsory Education and, University of Melbourne, Parkville, 3010, Victoria, Australia

    Richard Teese

  4. Faculty of Education, University of Melbourne, Parkville, 3010, Victoria, Australia

    John Polesel

  5. NIFU STEP, Wergelandsveien 7, Oslo, 0167, Norway

    Nina Sandberg

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Rumberger, R.W. (2011). High School Dropouts in the United States. In: Lamb, S., Markussen, E., Teese, R., Polesel, J., Sandberg, N. (eds) School Dropout and Completion. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9763-7_16

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