According to the polls, what Americans have persistently wanted in public schools are conservative institutions that are safe and that teach respect for authority, proper moral behavior, and basic literacy. Good schools regularly measure student academic achievement and give parents reports on how their children compare to others locally and nationally. In researching dropouts, social psychologist Michelle Fine discovered that in some inner city New York schools dropout rates range from 30 percent to more than 50 percent. But dropouts are not concentrated in the inner cities. The National Dropout Prevention Center, in Clemson, S.C., reports that students drop out of city schools and rural schools at about the same rate.
Dropouts often have a long string of failures that stretch back to the earliest grades.
About one-third of the girls who leave school before graduation are pregnant. Dropouts typically believe they have little control over their lives. About 500,000 youngsters drop out of school each year. NCES researchers disaggregated data on dropouts in a report released in December 1997. About 38 percent of Hispanic youth drop out, compared to about 16 percent of black students and about 8 percent of white students.