This article for practitioners summarizes work by Everyone Graduates researchers on early indicators of dropout.

We note that high school dropout often has been viewed as an event that is mysterious and difficult to predict. Our work in Philadelphia, however, suggests that the vast majority of dropouts sent signals of being on the path to dropout long before they finally left school.  The article describes the early warning indicators that we identified for 6th graders, 8th graders, and high school freshmen.

Download a copy of the full article, appearing originally as “An Early Warning System” by Ruth Curran Neild, Robert Balfanz, and Liza Herzog. Educational Leadership, October 2007 | Volume 65 | Number 2 Early Intervention at Every Age Pages 28-33, and available here in pdf.