Abstract
In a study of 526 students in two Philadelphia public high schools, the majority (135 of 265) who had been using drugs were found subsequently to have dropped out (failed to graduate) from high school, compared to only approximately one out of four (42 of 158) of the non-drug using students.
In a multiple regression analysis, which controlled for twenty demographic, personal and family variables which had previously been found to have significant correlation with dropping out versus graduation from high school, the severity of the student's earlier drug use was still found to predict to failure to graduate, to a significant degree (F = 6.03).
While drug use may not be the main cause of dropping out of high school, but only a concomitant effect of earlier, more basic state of disaffection from school, it is nevertheless clear that drug use by adolescents interferes with academic progress in high school.
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