Dropping out means leaving a group for either practical reasons, necessities or disillusionment with the system from which the individual in question leaves. It is used in various contexts, including:

• Most commonly it refers to a student quitting school before he or she graduates. It cannot always be ascertained that a student has dropped out, as he or she may stop attending without terminating enrollment. Reasons are varied and may include: to find work, to avoid bullying, poor grades, or an unexpected pregnancy, bad environment, lack of freedom, and boredom.
• In clinical trials participants may withdraw from the study, for example, due to adverse effects. This is also referred to as dropping out.
• In the 1960s "dropping out" was used to mean withdrawing from established society, especially because of disillusion with conventional values. It is a term commonly associated with the 1960s counterculture and with hippies and communes. See Turn on, tune in, drop out.

External links

• Essay by Ran Prieur
• Dropout Intervention and Language Minority Youth - From the ERIC Clearinghouse on Languages and Linguistics.
• The Dropout Cure: Students Seeing Their Own Future
• Report: Many big city graduation rates below 50%