"Why We Drop Out": Understanding and Disrupting Student Pathways to Leaving School

by Deborah L. Feldman, Antony T. Smith, Barbara L. Waxman

Overview

Through engaging stories and the use of students’ voices, this book corrects persistent misconceptions about youth who drop out of high school. Based on research conducted with high school dropouts in both urban and rural communities, the authors argue that, contrary to popular belief, most dropouts are not disengaged from school at an early age. Many have positive memories of their education, both social and academic, that educators and policymakers can draw on to create successful prevention and intervention practices. The narratives and insights presented here will help readers to better understand the interplay of school-related and personal factors that lead students to drop out of school. “Why We Drop Out” is essential reading for K–12 educators, school principals, counselors, psychologists, and everyone concerned with our nation’s dropout crisis.

“Every educator will recognize in these stories the daily opportunities that adults have to reach out and grab onto kids who are desperate for a hand and just need someone to pull them over that line.”
—From the Foreword by Camille A. Farrington, PhD, author of Failing at School: Lessons for Redesigning Urban High Schools

“This book greatly improves our understanding of the complex and long-term process of dropping out of high school.”
—Russell W. Rumberger, UC Santa Barbara, director, California Dropout Research Project

“A must-read for any teacher, principal, or superintendent interested in changing the lives of our students most at risk.”
—Greg Baker, superintendent, Bellingham Public Schools

“This is a book that everyone with a stake in education must read!”
—Dr. Shivohn Garcia, SUNY Empire State College

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807776162
Publisher:	Teachers College Press
Publication date:	08/14/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	980 KB

About the Author

Deborah L. Feldman is a senior research consultant based in Seattle who works with public-sector and private non-profit organizations. Antony T. Smith is associate professor in the School of Educational Studies at the University of Washington Bothell. Barbara L. Waxman, an educational consultant based in Seattle, teaches in an innovative teacher certification program dedicated to developing bilingual and diverse educators at Western Washington University.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"While the authors provide a sobering account of the realities that lead young people to drop out, embedded in these pages is also clear evidence of the transformative power of teachers and school administrators to keep students in school. Every educator will recognize in these stories the daily opportunities that adults have to reach out and grab onto kids who are desperate for a hand and just need someone to pull them over that line."
—From the Foreword by Camille A. Farrington, PhD, author of Failing at School: Lessons for Redesigning Urban High Schools (2014)

"Using rich, personal narratives, this book greatly improves our understanding of the complex and long-term process of dropping out of high school."
—Russell W. Rumberger, UC Santa Barbara, director, California Dropout Research Project

"Why We Drop Out provides a clear and concise framework for one of the biggest challenges we as educators and as a community face: students dropping out of school. For any teacher, principal, or superintendent interested in changing the lives of our students most at risk, this is a must-read, filled with practical and research-based solutions."
—Dr. Greg Baker, superintendent, Bellingham Public Schools

“Deborah L. Feldman, Antony T. Smith, and Barbara L. Waxman have written a book that everyone with a stake in education must read! It undergirds oral histories with interdisciplinary research as it seeks to answer the question of why students drop out of school, and it does an outstanding job of placing student voice—which is so often absent from these discussions—at the very center of the work.”
—Shivohn Garcia, SUNY Empire State College

Editorial Reviews

"It is important to ask what archaic and institutionalized structures in schools could – and should – be dismantled in order to broaden our conception of student attendance and thus, include more students in school beyond those who conform to traditional structures. Asking these questions is an important next step, and it begins with the kind of full and participant-driven understanding of the problems that Why We Drop Out provides."

—Journal of Children and Poverty

“I appreciate the authors’ inclusion of student voice, which offers the capacity to view youth dropout through a different lens. I also value their explicit recommendations for school and system improvement. So often in research practitioners get the “what to do” and not the “how to do it”; this text gives both…The authors leave readers with a choice, and I am optimistic after reading this text that our nation can transform from being one at risk to one that can and will heed the calls to disrupt the pathways to dropping out of school.”

—Harvard Educational Review

From the Publisher