Obtained qualitative data from 374 urban high school dropouts during interviews. Female and male respondents from five ethnic groups answered questions concerning their dropout history, reasons for leaving school, feelings about various aspects of high school experience, past and present activities, academic and general future plans, reflections…

The goals of this study of early school leavers from 12 Los Angeles high schools were the following: (1) to discover whether the students were true dropouts or whether they were enrolled in some alternative educational program that might lead to a high school diploma; (2) to determine the reasons the students left school before graduating; (3) to…