What do you think?
Rate this book
Dropping Out: Why Students Drop Out of High School and What Can Be Done About It
The vast majority of kids in the developed world finish high school―but not in the United States. More than a million kids drop out every year, around 7,000 a day, and the numbers are rising. Dropping Out offers a comprehensive overview by one of the country’s leading experts, and provides answers to fundamental Who drops out, and why? What happens to them when they do? How can we prevent at-risk kids from short-circuiting their futures? Students start disengaging long before they get to high school, and the consequences are severe―not just for individuals but for the larger society and economy. Dropouts never catch up with high school graduates on any measure. They are less likely to find work at all, and more likely to live in poverty, commit crimes, and suffer health problems. Even life expectancy for dropouts is shorter by seven years than for those who earn a diploma. Rumberger advocates targeting the most vulnerable students as far back as the early elementary grades. And he levels sharp criticism at the conventional definition of success as readiness for college. He argues that high schools must offer all students what they need to succeed in the workplace and independent adult life. A more flexible and practical definition of achievement―one in which a high school education does not simply qualify you for more school―can make school make sense to young people. And maybe keep them there.
- GenresNonfiction
400 pages, Hardcover
First published October 15, 2011
10 people are currently reading
70 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 4, 2013
I have too much to read and not enough time to read everything that gets sent to me or seems interesting. There is no small amount of relief, if not joy, when a journal arrives or something is sent to me, and I realize after skimming it for 30 seconds that I can simply file or delete it. Sometimes, however, I have to read every sentence in a text not simply because it is well written but because the author has something to say. Sometimes, because my time is short, I find myself in the odd position of savoring every chapter of a book while at the same time cursing the author – why couldn’t this book simply be half-baked so I could rush on to the next text. Consequently, for the last month or so, I’ve been muttering “Damn you, Russ Rumberger!”
Professor Rumberger of UC Santa Barbara has written a book on dropping out. The book is superb. It is erudite, scholarly, engaging and provocative. The almost 400 page book is the work of a lifetime and is testimony to how a first rate scholar builds his case for a vexing problem by calling on historical research, data sets from multiple methodologies, and research that spans over a generation.
If we want to increase college-going rates and improve college readiness we are going to have to deal with the continuing problem of high school dropouts. What we do, however, depends not simply on one or another strategy, but on the data we employ to understand those who drop out. Rumberger also makes a convincing case that we not only need to consider the causes of dropping out, but also the purposes of our schools. I can make a convincing case for “college for all.” Rumberger can make a more convincing case that if “all” = 100% then we actually will contribute to dropping out.
Sometimes academics cook up arcane language and terms that only those of us in the rarefied atmosphere of the academy will understand (Pierre Bourdieu, anyone?). Early in his text Rumberger talks about dropping out as a status and an event. I actually find such a distinction very helpful in thinking through what’s going on, and what we might do.
I could say the text is depressing because he offers no magic bullets. But the work is realistic more than anything else. He cautions us – as any good researcher must – that if there were a magic (and inexpensive) solution, then everyone would be doing it. Instead, he works his way patiently through the familial, organizational and individual characteristics that influence dropping out. He then walks us through the nature, consequences, causes and possible solutions. Because the text is so well written, and the logic of his argument so sound, the reader never gets lost.
I also appreciated the tone of the book. The author is always present, but this is by no means a confessional memoir of someone who has spent his academic career researching the topic. The text is also not a diatribe where students, families, teachers, or policy experts are villains or victims. He describes an environment the way I have seen it played over the years – one where people are trying to cope and they do what they think is the best that they can. Some cope better than others, but in the end, solutions seem to evade us.
Rumberger calls upon all methodologies and various strands of programs to consider what possible solutions might look like. He is someone who is big on accountability, and consistent in the observation that systemic change will take time. He recognizes that students may drop out of a school, but much of the work to lessen dropping out will occur with families and in communities.
The day I finished this book we went to the Los Angeles Philharmonic and saw Gustavo Dudamel conduct Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. On the way home I thought how rare – and pleasurable – it was to watch two maestros at work on the same day.
Professor Rumberger of UC Santa Barbara has written a book on dropping out. The book is superb. It is erudite, scholarly, engaging and provocative. The almost 400 page book is the work of a lifetime and is testimony to how a first rate scholar builds his case for a vexing problem by calling on historical research, data sets from multiple methodologies, and research that spans over a generation.
If we want to increase college-going rates and improve college readiness we are going to have to deal with the continuing problem of high school dropouts. What we do, however, depends not simply on one or another strategy, but on the data we employ to understand those who drop out. Rumberger also makes a convincing case that we not only need to consider the causes of dropping out, but also the purposes of our schools. I can make a convincing case for “college for all.” Rumberger can make a more convincing case that if “all” = 100% then we actually will contribute to dropping out.
Sometimes academics cook up arcane language and terms that only those of us in the rarefied atmosphere of the academy will understand (Pierre Bourdieu, anyone?). Early in his text Rumberger talks about dropping out as a status and an event. I actually find such a distinction very helpful in thinking through what’s going on, and what we might do.
I could say the text is depressing because he offers no magic bullets. But the work is realistic more than anything else. He cautions us – as any good researcher must – that if there were a magic (and inexpensive) solution, then everyone would be doing it. Instead, he works his way patiently through the familial, organizational and individual characteristics that influence dropping out. He then walks us through the nature, consequences, causes and possible solutions. Because the text is so well written, and the logic of his argument so sound, the reader never gets lost.
I also appreciated the tone of the book. The author is always present, but this is by no means a confessional memoir of someone who has spent his academic career researching the topic. The text is also not a diatribe where students, families, teachers, or policy experts are villains or victims. He describes an environment the way I have seen it played over the years – one where people are trying to cope and they do what they think is the best that they can. Some cope better than others, but in the end, solutions seem to evade us.
Rumberger calls upon all methodologies and various strands of programs to consider what possible solutions might look like. He is someone who is big on accountability, and consistent in the observation that systemic change will take time. He recognizes that students may drop out of a school, but much of the work to lessen dropping out will occur with families and in communities.
The day I finished this book we went to the Los Angeles Philharmonic and saw Gustavo Dudamel conduct Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. On the way home I thought how rare – and pleasurable – it was to watch two maestros at work on the same day.
March 12, 2012
This book provides a thorough, interdisciplinary look at the reasons why students drop out of high school and what can be done about it.
Want to read
June 25, 2012Main LC146.6 .R86 2011
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews