By the 1960s, high schools had become mass institutions saddled with the expectation of universal education for America's youth. Ironically, with this broadening of clientele and mission came the idea and phenomenon of the dropout. The consolidation of a dropout stereotype focused on the presumed dependency and delinquency of dropouts, with the resulting programs focusing on guidance and vocational training. Why the problem persists is the topic of this study with more constructive perspectives on dropping out.
By the 1960s, high schools had become mass institutions saddled with the expectation of universal education for America's youth. Ironically, with this broadening of clientele and mission came the idea and phenomenon of the dropout. The consolidation of a dropout stereotype focused on the presumed dependency and delinquency of dropouts, with the resulting programs focusing on guidance and vocational training. Why the problem persists is the topic of this study with more constructive perspectives on dropping out.
This history of school dropout policies argues that the U.S. has inherited the wrong perspective on dropping out, which has resulted in faulty and unconstructive corrective measures.
Introduction
Long-Term Demographic Patterns
The Changing Mission of High Schools
Early Attitudes Toward Attrition
"Social Dynamite"
The Limits of Dropout Programs
Omissions
Dropout Tides
The Demeaning Dropout Debate
Sources
Index
SHERMAN DORN is Assistant Professor of Social Foundations of Education at the University of South Florida. He holds history degrees from Haverford College and the University of Pennsylvania.
?In documenting the history of the dropout problem, Dorn tells
three related sets of stories. First, this book is a story about
rising expectations for schooling and the changing role of the high
school over this century from an elite to a 'mass' institution.
Second, this book is a story about the creation of a social problem
and a social class of people that need to be singled out for
special supports and services. And, third, it is a story about the
intransigence of school systems and the ways in which schools
buffer themselves from real change to response to new
problems....The historical sections of this book are excellent and
contribute to an inderstanding of how concerns over dropouts have
shaped school systems' and society's response. The book also serves
as a useful policy history?-Journal of Policy Analysis and
Management
?Let me recommend Sherman Dorn's new book, Creating the Dropout.
The book understakes a scholarly trek through the rhetoric of
school leaving, contruing economic and political vagaries as the
occasions for a manufactured problem.?-Education Policy Analysis
Archives
"Let me recommend Sherman Dorn's new book, Creating the Dropout.
The book understakes a scholarly trek through the rhetoric of
school leaving, contruing economic and political vagaries as the
occasions for a manufactured problem."-Education Policy Analysis
Archives
"In documenting the history of the dropout problem, Dorn tells
three related sets of stories. First, this book is a story about
rising expectations for schooling and the changing role of the high
school over this century from an elite to a 'mass' institution.
Second, this book is a story about the creation of a social problem
and a social class of people that need to be singled out for
special supports and services. And, third, it is a story about the
intransigence of school systems and the ways in which schools
buffer themselves from real change to response to new
problems....The historical sections of this book are excellent and
contribute to an inderstanding of how concerns over dropouts have
shaped school systems' and society's response. The book also serves
as a useful policy history"-Journal of Policy Analysis and
Management
|
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
