Why Students Drop Out

Bridgeland, DiIulio, and Morison (2006) interviewed high school dropouts to find out why they didn't finish school.

Percentage of NELS:88 8th to 10th grade dropouts who reported that various reasons for dropping out of school applied to them.
Reason	Total	Male	Female
School Related:
Did not like school	51.2	57.8	44.2
Could not get along with teachers	35.0	51.6	17.2
Could not get along with students	20.1	18.3	21.9
Was suspended too often	16.1	19.2	12.7
Did not feel safe at school	12.1	11.5	12.8
Was expelled	13.4	17.6	8.9
Felt I didn't belong	23.2	31.5	14.4
Could not keep up with school work	31.3	37.6	24.7
Was failing school	39.9	46.2	33.1
Changed school, didn't like new one	13.2	10.8	15.8
Job Related:
Couldn't work and go to school at same time	14.1	20.0	7.8
Had to get a job	15.3	14.7	16.0
Found a job	15.3	18.6
Family Related:
Had to support family	9.2	4.8	14.0
Wanted to have family	6.2	4.2	8.4
Was pregnant	31.0		31.0
Became pregnant	13.6	5.1	22.6
Got married	13.1	3.4	23.6
Had to care for family member	8.3	4.6	12.2
Other:
Wanted to travel	2.1	2.5	1.7
Friends dropped out	14.1	16.8	11.3
DATA SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88) First Followup Study, 1990.

Bridgeland, J.M., DiIulio, J.J., & Morison, K.B. (2006). The silent epidemic.

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