Early High School Dropouts: What Are Their Characteristics?

Approximately 2.7 percent of 2009 ninth-graders had dropped out of school by spring 2012 when most would have been in eleventh grade.

This publication provides a snapshot of “early high school dropouts,” those who dropped out of school between ninth and eleventh grade without earning a high school diploma or any alternative credential such as a GED. Key findings include:

•    Asian students dropped out at the lowest rate (0.3 percent), compared with White (2.1 percent), Black (4.3 percent), and Hispanic (3.5 percent) students.

•    Nearly 5 percent (4.7 percent) of students whose family socioeconomic status was in the lowest 20 percent had dropped out, compared with 0.6 percent of their peers in the highest 20 percent.

This Data Point uses data from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09) to examine the extent to which high school students drop out of school between the ninth and eleventh grades and how they vary by sex, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status.