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Dropout Research: Sherman Dorn
An Explanation for Children
Research Aims
Dropping out, as a term describing those without high school diplomas, became dominant in the early 1960s, when a majority of teenagers graduated from high school. Since then, we have seen the relative proportion of teenagers earning regular diplomas and alternative credentials increase, and interest in the "dropout problem" wax and wane. Has this varying interest, and the policies putatively addressing the issue, accomplished much? My research on dropping out explores the intersection of demography, the social construction of problems, and policy. My conclusion:
We have chosen the wrong way of looking at dropouts. Instead of seeing different educational outcomes as evidence of remaining inequities in schooling, we have focused instead on the social costs of dropping out, typically imagined as dependency, criminality, and lower economic productivity. Through this language, the social construction of dropping out has given high schools the burden of ameliorating poverty and preventing social chaos. As a higher proportion of teenagers attended secondary schools, this new mission for high schools and the expectation of high school graduation perhaps seemed natural. It was, however, an historical artifact that one can time by the rise of the dropout problem. Demography is important in shaping our views of social problems, but it is not restrictive. Several ways existed to shape the growing expectation of high school graduation, and we did not have to choose concerns about dependency as the primary metaphor for dropouts.
, p. 4.Creating the dropout
Sources
Archival materials
In Philadelphia, New York, and Atlanta, public policies surrounding dropouts are recorded in a variety of archival materials, including school board records, newspaper articles, and the papers of private organizations. Philadelphia's Urban Archives, at Temple University's library, has an especially rich collection of materials on dissenting definitions of the problem which civil rights activists held.
Published works
Periodicals in the 1960s (both professional and popular) recorded the rise of interest in dropping out and the growing stereotype of dropouts as males aliented from school and unable to see the consequences of dropping out.
Census public use samples
Census public use samples from 1940 through 1990 document surprising stability in some relationships with high school graduation (notably gender, family income, family home ownership, and parents' education) while showing dramatic changes in others (whether being African-American was a relatively disadvantage).
Articles and Book (where to read this stuff)
Dorn, Sherman. 1993. Origins of the "dropout problem." History of Education Quarterly 33: 353-373. This article discusses the rise of concern in dropping out in the ealry 1960s
Dorn, Sherman. 1996. Creating the dropout: An institutional and social history of school failure. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, whose Web site has a short description of the book. You can also see Harvey Kantor's review or Aimee Howley's review.
Dorn, Sherman. 1996. Dropouts: Shadow of high school graduation. A column which appeared in a few newspapers in late May and early June 1996, and thus far my only attempt to translate some of my stuff into a more popular forum. Read it here.
Dorn, Sherman, and Erwin V. Johanningmeier. 1999. Dropping out and the military metaphor. History of Education Quarterly 39: 193-98.
Debts and references
Several influences shaped my research and writing on dropping out. Michael Katz consistently encouraged me to revise and revise until I was clear. Michelle Fine, whose work (e.g., Framing Dropouts) is the best on what dropping out means currently, kept reminding me to listen to what was not being said about dropping out.
Melissa Roderick's The path to dropping out is a careful analysis of the influence of retention and being overage on dropping out. It came out the year after I finished my dissertation. You can find a description of some her current work in a University of Chicago newsletter article as well as at the Consortium on Chicago School Research.
The Song!
That's right. I've combined two socially unacceptable activities (research and songwriting) to boil my conclusions down to a few minutes in the Dropout Blues.