School Dropouts: Who Are They and What Can Be Done?

John Richards
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John Richards: Simon Fraser University

No 109, e-briefs from C.D. Howe Institute

Abstract: While Canada has made progress in the past two decades in terms of lowering high-school dropout rates, those rates remain unacceptably high for boys and certain groups limited by poverty or other factors. In this paper, the author warns that the male share of the dropout population continues to rise, with five males now dropping out for every three females. As well, some groups of immigrants, those living in rural areas and Aboriginals also exhibit a worrisome lack of educational achievement compared with the Canadian average. The author recommends strategies to target groups who are falling between the cracks. Among them: education authorities should collect and use reliable data on student performance in core subjects, and should experiment aggressively on initiatives targeted to improve education outcomes for vulnerable groups of Canadians.

Keywords: Education Papers; Canadian education; school dropouts; dropout rates; Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H52 I21 I28 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 7 pages
Date: 2011-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu and nep-lab
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

Published on the C.D. Howe Institute website January 2011

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