What can the Public School do to Reduce Dropout Numbers?

Abstract

Rural youth who fail to complete high school often experience a great deal of difficulty when competing for available jobs. All rural youth cannot hope to find employment at satisfactory wage levels in the local community. Many must leave. It has long been known that economic mobility is highly related to the educational level of an individual. Dropping out of school at an early age poses a substantial deterrent to educational attainment and subsequent mobility.It has been proposed that the number of dropouts can be reduced by pumping more money into the public schools. Educators have contended that inexperienced, poorly trained, and low-paid teachers often found in rural areas can lead to large numbers of dropouts. The analysis that follows was therefore designed to isolate determinants of dropout numbers from public schools. The model construes the formal educative process in a production function context as have other studies. Minimization of the number of dropouts is assumed to be one of the goals of the local school administrator. Hence, the dropout rate is one possible measure of an output. Inputs to the production process consist of characteristics of the school and community believed to have an influence on a student's decision whether or not to stay in school.