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Creating the Dropout: An Institutional and Social History of School Failurereviewed by Harvey Kantor - 1997 Title: Creating the Dropout: An Institutional and Social History of School Failure Author(s): Sherman Dorn Publisher: Praeger Publications, Westport ISBN: 0275951758, Pages: , Year: 1996 Search for book at Amazon.com The subtitle of Sherman Dorn's new book on
the history of school dropouts is somewhat misleading. Strictly
speaking, it is not an institutional and social history of school
failure. Except for one chapter on long-term demographic trends,
the book does not explore historical patterns of school attendance,
promotion, and graduation among different groups of students. Nor,
as Dorn himself acknowledges at the outset, does the book examine
the kinds of school practices or the social and economic conditions
around schools that made for school failure and led some students
to drop out. That would be a valuable study, but it still awaits
its historian. Instead, Dorn explores another set of equally
interesting questions. Why, he asks, have we come to view dropping
out as a social problem in the first place? In particular, why has
dropping out come to be seen as a crisis issue, despite steady
growth in the proportion of students graduating from high school?
And how have our views of this problem... (preview truncated at 150 words.)To view the full-text for this article you must be signed-in with the appropriate membership. Please review your options below:
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