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

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

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0807758620 ISBN 13: 9780807758625

Publisher: Teachers College Press, 2017

Synopsis

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.

Book Features:

• Looks beyond stereotypes to more effectively identify students at risk.
• Identifies the underlying patterns and processes associated with dropping out.
• Incorporates student profiles and experiences to illustrate key issues.
• Includes a research-based framework to help readers connect stories to policy implications.

About this title

Book Description:

"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

From 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.

About this edition

• Publisher: Teachers College Press
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 0807758620
• ISBN 13: 9780807758625
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 160