Educational Attainment of High School Dropouts 8 Years Later

This issue brief examines the educational outcomes of students who were ever classified as high school dropouts by 8 years after when most of their 1988 cohort of 8th graders would have completed high school. Some students who drop out return a short time later to earn a diploma, some may pursue an alternative credential such as a General Educational Development (GED) certificate, and others may enroll in a postsecondary institution without having earned a high school credential. Using data on public and private school students from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88), examines the educational attainment of the 21 percent of 1988 eighth-graders who had dropped out of high school at least once since eighth grade.

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