A ''pushout'' is a student who leaves their
school
A school is the educational institution (and, in the case of in-person learning, the Educational architecture, building) designed to provide learning environments for the teaching of students, usually under the direction of teachers. Most co ...
before graduation, through the encouragement of the school. A student who leaves of their own accord (e.g., to work or care for a child), rather than through the action of the school, is considered a school
dropout. In typical use, the category of pushouts excludes students who have been formally
expelled from school for violating rules (e.g., for being violent).
Students may be pushed out of school because their presence in the school creates difficulty in meeting some goal of the school. For example, in the case where funding for the school is dependent upon scholastic achievement of the students, if the school can get rid of low-performing students, average test scores on academic performance tests will go up, thus increasing funding. Schools may pushout
truant
Truancy is any intentional, unjustified, unauthorized, or illegal absence from compulsory education. It is a deliberate absence by a student's own free will and usually does not refer to legitimate excused absences, such as ones related to medic ...
students, who formally enroll in classes, but then refuse to attend.
In some low-performing schools in
Chicago
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
combined dropout/pushout rates have exceeded 25% in one year.
"Enrollment drops point to pushout effect", ''Catalyst, Voices of Chicago Educational Reform.'' June, 1999
/ref>
Adolescents are also pushed from schools because they present discipline
Discipline is the self-control that is gained by requiring that rules or orders be obeyed, and the ability to keep working at something that is difficult. Disciplinarians believe that such self-control is of the utmost importance and enforce a ...
problems. Within youth advocacy and activist communities, pushout is a term that recognizes the intersecting forces of oppression most commonly responsible for high school "drop outs" within marginalized communities of color, allowing for the responsibility to be placed on those forces, rather than the youth impacted by unequal education, economics, disciplinary actions, and racism.
See also
*Remedial education
Remedial education (also known as developmental education, basic skills education, compensatory education, preparatory education, and academic upgrading) is assigned to assist students in order to achieve expected competencies in core academic sk ...
*School-to-prison pipeline
In the United States, the school-to-prison pipeline (SPP), also known as the school-to-prison link, school–prison nexus, or schoolhouse-to-jailhouse track, is the disproportionate tendency of minors and young adults from disadvantaged backgrou ...
References
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School and classroom behaviour