Dropout Legacy: An Examination of Historic Neighborhood Dropout Rates and Contemporary Dropout Behavior

• In Event: 29.090 - Roundtable Session 9
  In Roundtable Session: 29.090-11 - Secondary and Postsecondary Persistence Among Marginalized Youth

Abstract

This paper investigates the long term consequences of neighborhood dropout rates on student’s propensity to drop out of high school. The results presented here complement the literature in neighborhood effects on educational attainment. Adding an element of time to traditional neighborhood effects models, this paper provides evidence that dropping out of high school has lasting effects on the individual, and the neighborhoods they are from. On a large scale, dropout behavior affects neighborhoods in important, policy relevant ways. Policy recommendations follow which focus on not only helping individual students graduate high school, but also on developing ways to break cycles of dropout behavior in neighborhoods.

Author

• Matthew Martinez, Brown University