Do We Know Who Will Drop Out? A Review of the Predictors of Dropping out of High School: Precision, Sensitivity, and Specificity

Item

Title

Do We Know Who Will Drop Out? A Review of the Predictors of Dropping out of High School: Precision, Sensitivity, and Specificity

Abstract/Description

The purpose of this study is to review the literature on the most accurate indicators of students at risk of dropping out of high school. We used Relative Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis to compare the sensitivity and specificity of 110 dropout flags across 36 studies. Our results indicate that 1) ROC analysis provides a means to compare the accuracy of different dropout indicators, 2) the majority of dropout flags to date have high precision yet lack accuracy, 3) longitudinal growth models provided the most accurate flags, while 4) the most accurate cross-sectional flags examine low or failing grades. We provide recommendations for future policy and practice.

Author/creator

Bowers, Alex J.

Sprott, Ryan

Taff, Sherry A.

Date

2012

In publication

The High School Journal

Volume

96

Issue

2

Pages

77-100

Resource type

en Research/Scholarly Media

Resource status/form

en Published Text

Scholarship genre

en Empirical

Open access/full-text available

en Yes

Peer reviewed

en Yes

ISSN

0018-1498

DOI

10.1353/hsj.2013.0000

URL

Official Publisher's Webpage (JSTOR)

Open Access Article (Columbia Academic Commons)

Citation

Bowers, A. J., Sprott, R., & Taff, S. A. (2012). Do We Know Who Will Drop Out? A Review of the Predictors of Dropping out of High School: Precision, Sensitivity, and Specificity. The High School Journal, 96(2), 77–100.

Item sets

Handbook Chapter 20 Citations

• Email