A comparative study of individual reasons for school attendance termination between vocational and nonvocational dropouts

The purposes of this study are threefold: (1) to investigate and compare determinants that led to students dropping out of vocational and nonvocational programs in three selected Knoxville City High Schools, (2) to develop and test a questionnaire that can identify determinants of dropouts and (3) to provide preliminary information for a 5-year follow-up plan which could be useful to school administrators, guidance departments and vocational instructors in identifying factors that contribute to the dropout rate.

The subjects of this study were taken from a list of names supplied by the counselors and clerks at the selected high schools. These students consisted of those who had entered the ninth grade in September 1981, and became noncompleters or dropouts before graduating in June 1985. The students' names were combined into two randomly selected lists consisting of one hundred vocational and one hundred nonvocational students.

The data were collected by the use of a questionnaire and telephone interviews. Out of one hundred former vocational students, there was a fifty percent return rate and a fifty-four percent rate for nonvocational respondents.

The specific questions answered in this study were as follows:

1. What primary reasons do vocational and nonvocational students give for leaving school?

2. Are there differences between vocational and nonvocational students with regard to reasons for dropping out?

3. Is there a similarity between demographic areas of the students?

4. Can the past dropouts provide clues for new approaches to help solve the problems for future dropouts?

5. What procedures if any, could the Knoxville City Schools, including vocational departments, implement to keep students in school?

The results of the study concluded the following:

1. The primary reasons given by vocational students for dropping out of school include the following in order of significance:

Did not like math, science or English

The teachers did not make the classes interesting

Could not do math problems

Failed more than one subject in school

Needed money for clothes

Needed money to operate the car I owned

Was pregnant

Was not liked by the teachers

2. The primary reasons given by nonvocational respondents in order of frequency included:

Was bored with the classes

Did not like math or English

The classes were not interesting

Needed extra help with school work

Needed money for clothes

Needed money to operate the car I owned

Family problems

I had friends not in school

3. Vocational students implied that the most frequent reason for dropping out of school was the school program. Nonvocational respondents suggested learning reasons as the most frequent reason for leaving.

4. There were similarities between the demographic areas of the respondents. The majority of the vocational and nonvocational students were from one-parent families, had left school between the ages of seventeen and eighteen, and were female.

5. Based on the opinions and responses supplied by the former vocational and nonvocational students, there are approaches that can help solve the problems for future dropouts.

6. The respondents implied the following with regard to possible procedures that could be implemented to keep students in school:

a. Educators must provide students with programs and activities to fulfill basic personal needs, e.g., food shelter, and clothing.

b. Teachers must provide students with assistance in studies.

c. Educators must review past teaching methods and make classes more interesting and meaningful.