Author Description

This paper reviews the literature on dropping out of school, with a view to developing an empirical model that can be used for the National Longitudinal Survey of Children & Youth and other longitudinal surveys of child & youth development. The review details a rich & developed literature with consistent findings concerning the relationship between socio-economic status and dropping out of school, but with relatively few studies about the processes which lead to dropping out. In view of growing evidence that "engagement" (the extent to which young people identify with their school and derive a sense of well-being from their academic work) is a crucial determinant of success in school, and that paths towards academic success begin at birth, the authors believe that both a true understanding of the factors associated with dropping out and potential remedies need to be considered as a part of a life-course model. They offer a model that considers six broad categories of factors affecting individuals' chances from early childhood: individual effects, family effects, engagement, peers, schools and communities. The paper concludes with a discussion of possible empirical estimation strategies.