Systematic reviews of evidence in this topic address the following questions:

• Which dropout prevention programs are effective in reducing the high school dropout rate?
• Are some dropout prevention programs more effective for certain types of students?

Topic Area Focus

The high school dropout rate continues to be an issue of national concern. The current estimate of the percentage of children who do not complete high school at the end of a 13-year program of study (K-12) is approximately 11 percent of the entire high school population and can be as high as 28 percent among certain segments of the population. The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) review focuses on interventions in middle school, junior high school, or high school designed to increase high school completion, including techniques such as the use of incentives, counseling, or monitoring.

Key Definitions

Dropout Prevention Programs. Dropout prevention programs are interventions designed to increase high school completion rates. These interventions can include such techniques as the use of incentives, counseling, or monitoring as the prevention/intervention of choice.

Reduced Dropout Rate. The success of any program will be evaluated by comparing the rate of high school completion and diploma receipt among program participants to that of a comparison group. This report will distinguish between traditional outcomes of high school completion (for example, diploma receipt) and other student outcomes.

Populations Included

The general target population includes students who attend middle school, junior high school, or high school. Although dropout prevention programs that address all students will be included, subpopulations that are especially vulnerable are of particular interest: racial and ethnic minorities, second-language learners, high-poverty students, and low-achieving students. Whenever possible, findings will be broken out by subpopulations (for example, urban settings, high poverty) when focused information on a particular population is reported in a study.

Types of Interventions

The interventions to be included will be determined after an exhaustive search of the published and unpublished literature by the WWC Review Team as well as a review of the nominations submitted to the WWC. Only research on interventions that are replicable (that is, can be reproduced) will be reviewed. Examples of the possible types of interventions to be included are:

• career academies,
• interventions that use school reform or restructuring methods to reduce dropout,
• interventions designed to provide sustained intervention by increasing and maintaining student engagement in school, and
• interventions that focus on populations who are disproportionately at-risk of dropping out.