America’s Promise Alliance and the Center for Promise at Tufts University issued the report in June. Center researchers conducted in-depth group interviews in 30 cities with 200 young people ages 18-25 and surveyed several thousand more for the study.
The problems students cite are often a cluster of issues taking place at the same time that may include family health crises, dangerous neighborhoods, unstable home lives, homelessness, and abuse. These factors can be aggravated by the students’ yearning to belong somewhere. If school is not supportive or inviting, some students view other options, like joining a gang or having a child at a young age, as more attractive.
“Young people who don’t finish high school have few avenues for sharing their stories with adults, school professionals, community leaders, and policy makers,” the report’s authors write. “The goal of this report is to change that – to raise up the voices of young people who have not graduated from high school so that we all gain a deeper understanding of the challenges and choices they face.”
Roughly 20% of the nation’s high school students drop out of school, according to the report. That represents about 800,000 students a year.
The report’s survey shows that of those who leave school:
- 53.1% lost someone close to them,
- 42.6% were a regular caregiver to a family member,
- 36.9% used drugs,
- 30% were emotionally or physically abused,
- 21.9% experienced homelessness,
- 18% were incarcerated in a juvenile detention facility, and
- 11% were in a gang.
These responses were all well above the levels of those who continuously attended school, according to the survey. For example, 39.8% of the dropouts said they had moved four or more times, compared to 19.7% of the graduates.
The report also includes recommendations to address this problem, including making greater efforts to identify students who need extra support and then providing those supports.
