Differences in High School Dropout rates by School Size for Students in Poverty

Ambrose Amy R., Slate John R.* and Moore George W.

In this investigation, two years (i.e. 2011-2012 and 2012-2013) of statewide archival data from the Texas Education Agency Academic Performance Reports were analyzed to examine the relationships between high school student enrollment size and dropout rates for students who were economically disadvantaged. Congruent with previous research, high schools were categorized into three groups by student enrollment (i.e. small-size school = 50 to 400 students; medium-size school = 401 to 1,500 students; large-size school > 1,500 students). Statistically significant differences were yielded in dropout rates as a function of high school size. For both the 2012 and 2013 school years, small-size high schools had higher dropout rates for students who were economically disadvantaged than did either medium-size or large-size high schools. Implications of these results for policy and for practice are provided.

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