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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By Sean Corcoran (WCAI)

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Last week, the federal government released some forty-four billion dollars in federal stimulus money for education, with another round of funding due later this year. Among people concerned about the state’s dropout rates, there’s optimism that the new dollars can be put toward the problem. But budget restraints already are hitting dropout prevention efforts, forcing cutbacks and perhaps even ending some programs.

When Beverly High School’s regular school day ends around 2:45 each afternoon, large back-hoes and dump-trucks begin ramping up their clamorous work on the school’s 81 million dollar addition and renovation project. And also around that time, about a dozen students — students who’ve had trouble in school and have even contemplated dropping out — they’re starting their academic day.

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Dropping Out of School has Serious Consequences, Both for the Student and for the Communities Where They Live

By Sean Corcoran (WCAI)

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When a young person drops out of high school in the year 2009, it’s a decision that often comes with consequences for more than only the student. It’s a community problem, particularly on Cape Cod, a region already experiencing an exodus of young people. Dropout rates further threaten the Cape’s shrinking workforce and the area’s ability to attract employers.

Stephanie Davidson was on her way to the school office to pick up papers last year, documents that essentially would let her teachers, the school district and the state know she was dropping out. After 11 years in school, she’d decided there was nothing else she could do, really. Dropping out was the only option she had left.

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