By Sean Corcoran (WCAI)

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For the communities of Cape Cod and suburban Boston, young people dropping out of high school is a serious issue. The statistics are lower than in the city, to be sure, but on Cape Cod alone for the Class of 2008, dropout rates ranged from zero in Provincetown to seventeen percent in Mashpee — with the highest numbers found in the districts with the most needy children. As part of WGBH’s ongoing, in- depth look at the dropout issue, our reporter Sean Corcoran talks to young people about why dropping out became an option, and he looks at some efforts to keep students in school.

People have ideas and assumptions about high school dropouts and so-called ‘at-risk youth’ in general. 17-year-old Allison Vilad of Marston Mills on Cape Cod knows this, she says, because she’s one of the students that carries that somewhat distasteful label.

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