A Statewide Dropout Tracking System

Abstract

Policy makers and educators alike have been concerned with completion and dropout rates associated with the education process in America for more than two decades. Levine and McLaughlin stated: “The need for valid dropout statistics is widely accepted. Local and State Agencies are continually asked for information on dropout rates; and they have frequently been embarrassed or harmed by the lack of uniformity of dropout definitions” [1, p. 8]. This deficiency is often due to an ineffective method of properly cataloging student exits and tracking student movements across time and distance. The purpose of this paper is to describe a method for tracking student data across years. Data are presented to show the impact of system changes on longitudinal reporting of dropout information.