An Investigation of the Personal, Social, Educational, and Economical Reasons for Success and Lack of Success in School as Expressed by 105 Tenth Grade Biology Students

Abstract

MORE THAN two decades have passed since ed ucators began to study seriously the reasons why students drop out of high school before gradu ation. 1~5* In spite of the increased enrollment in the secondary school due to the rise in the birth rate; the great prosperity of the Fabulous Fifties; and the wider range of curriculum offerings in our Amer ican schools, the steady rateo of drop-outs in the tenth and eleventh year is an indication that the prob lems involved here still have not been solved. E ach teacher in the public high schools who has soph omores and juniors has his share of pupils who are waiting it out until they are sixteen or until pa rental resistance to leaving school can be overcome. Each of these boys and girls represents a failure on the part of the schools to meet students needs. Some where along the line, the school has lost them and while there are sporadic spurts of interest and mo tivation, ultimately they flounder and give up. Bell? studied 10, 858 students who had left school before graduation, and the following are the reasons they gave for leaving school. Percentage Reasons Given of Youth