Determining how many students drop out of school and why they leave is not easy. The definition of a "dropout" varies from school district to school district, and the mobility of students makes counting them accurately nearly impossible. In an effort to define dropouts in a way that can be applied uniformly across the country, a…

This paper reviews the literature on urban school dropouts and the experiences of superintendents in attempting to lower the dropout rate. The paper is divided into two major sections. Part I examines how a mixture of societal, community, family and other influences increase the chances that an at-risk student will experience little success in…