OPPORTUNITIES, COSTS, AND HIGH-SCHOOL COMPLETION IN WEST-VIRGINIA - AREPLICATION OF FLORIDA RESEARCH

Usual explanations of why students drop out of high school focus on ch aracteristics of individual students, their families, and their partic ular schools. Although this research is informative, it ignores struct urally determined contextual factors, especially the prevailing and an ticipated opportunities and social and psychological costs associated with continued investment in secondary education. School district-leve l data for West Virginia in 1986-87 were used to investigate the value of focusing on structurally determined opportunities and costs to exp lain dropping out. This research builds on two previous Florida analys es and one previous West Virginia analysis that addressed the same iss ue and that have beers reported elsewhere. Limitations of the earlier West Virginia research were addressed in the present study, which repl icates the second Florida analysis. Insofar as similar relationships h old in states as different as Florida and West Virginia, the plausibil ity of the present findings is enhanced. Also, insofar as relationship s hold up under a variety of analytical procedures, increased confiden ce in the value of the present findings seems justified.