Dropouts: In High School and After School

Abstract

In 1960 Project TALENT tested approximately 440,000 students attending over 1,300 public and private high schools in all parts of the country. The second phase of this large-scale longitudinal study of American youth was the collection of follow-up data from the same young people tested in 1960. Using data collected from one of the grades participating in the original testing, the ninth grade, Project TALENT has identified students who did not complete high school. These boys and girls who dropped out of school after grade nine are the topic of this study. Although numerous studies of dropouts have already been reported in the education literature, the particular combination of characteristics of this study make it somewhat unique in comparison with other efforts. First of all, it is longitudinal in nature; the initial measurements were made when the subjects were in ninth grade in 1960, with a follow-up in 1964. Secondly, the sample of subjects is a probability sample of the entire national ninthgrade population. Therefore, it is possible to estimate parameters of the dropout population which could not be estimated previously. Also, the TALENT test battery covers a broad spectrum of attributes. Thus, not only IQ, but differential aptitudes and abilities, interests, self-perceptions, socioeconomic environment, school