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The study in this article identifies three major risk categories of high school dropouts and evaluates the impact of possible prevention strategies. As students accumulate these risks, they became more likely to drop out and prevention programs become less effective. Additionally, it was found that factors influencing the decision to drop out vary for different sources of risk, and thus there should be a range of prevention strategies offered to accommodate for this variance.
Since the 1970s, there has been a growing effort to improve high school graduation rates. In 1983, the National Commission on Excellence in Education sounded the alarm because U.S. educational standards had fallen behind other major industrialized countries (National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983). The commission called for a reform of the nation's educational system in fundamental ways and a renewal of the nation's commitment to high-quality education. Though these issues received increased attention following the commission's call, little research has been devoted to how much the likelihood of dropping out of school increases when students accumulate multiple risk factors.
Studies on high school dropouts have primarily been concerned with the identification of characteristics associated with dropout risk, and researchers have consistently found them in varied domains such as school, family, community, and the students themselves (Farmer & Payne, 1992; Gruskin, Campbell, & Paulu, 1987; Kronick & Hards, 1998; Orr, 1987; Payne, 1989; Reyes, 1989; Roderick, 1993; Suh, Suh, & Houston, in press; Tindall, 1988; Valdivieso, 1986; Vallerand, Portier, & Guay, 1997; Wehlage, 1989). Many researchers simply identified the multiple factors contributing to school dropout.
For example, Coley (1995) presented schoolrelated problems such as disliking school, receiving poor grades, not being able to keep up with schoolwork, and not getting along with teachers as four of the top six reasons for dropping out. Devine (1996) identified parents' low educational attainment, the number of household members, and lack of motivation as reasons why students with a low socioeconomic status (SES) drop out of school. Ekstrom, Goertz, Pollack, and Rock (1986) found that dropouts tend to be racial minorities from poor families. Students' deviant and resistant behaviors also were identified as strongly related to dropping out of school. Fine and Rosenberg (1983) indicated that high school dropouts challenge the dominant belief...