Russell Rumberger

More than 85,000 students drop out of California’s public school system each year, costing taxpayers billions of dollars and threatening the state’s future economy. In this seminar Russell Rumberger from UC-Santa Barbara will present findings from his research on the causes and consequences of dropping out in California as part of the California Dropout Research Project, and from his recent book, Dropping Out, from a national perspective. Rumberger will address four facets of California’s dropout crisis: the severity of the problem and whether it’s getting better or worse; the individual and social consequences of dropping out; the reasons why students drop out of school; and changes in policy and educational practice that can help to address the problem. Proven dropout prevention strategies range from providing quality pre-school programs to a variety of reforms in the organization and operation of high schools. Rumberger argues that solving California’s dropout crisis will require collective action by the state, local school districts, and individual schools.