Dropout of School: Risk Factors and Effective Pedagogical Interventions

Early school leaving without graduation has a negative effect on students’ vocational, personal, and social perspective. Based on the question of the prevalence of early school leaving in Germany, serious consequences for school dropouts are discussed. The article at hand takes a primarily educational perspective. On the basis of metaanalyses an overview of empirically confirmed individual, familial and school related risk factors is given. Furthermore, the factors are integrated into a developmental model and described in their temporal progress. Finally, promising and internationally validated interventions to prevent dropouts are outlined that are mostly unknown in Germany.