DROPOUT SYNDROMES: A STUDY OF INDIVIDUAL, FAMILY, AND SOCIAL FACTORS, IN TWO MONTREAL HIGH SCHOOLS

Abstract

It has generally been considered a fair test of an institution that is intended to serve the public, to take note of the number of people who continue to use its services once they have begun. The dropout rate in high schools was the subject of general concern in the decade of the sixties, but no single solution appeared to be found; the rate has continued to be rather high, and higher in some schools than in others. Zamanzadeh and Prince, persisting with the problem, collected data of four kinds - personal, family, attitudinal, and academic - from the students in two such schools, and then returned the following year to interview those who had since left before graduating. They report no fewer than five separate socio-psychological patterns, common and distinctive among the dropouts, and illustrate them here with case examples. For one or two of these groups, dropping out may have been the right step, given the circumstances; towards the others there would appear to be some obligation on the part of the system, to adjust.