Research

Attrition and Dropout Rates in Texas

Texas public schools are losing one out of five students.

Each year, IDRA releases its attrition study. Attrition rates are an indicator of a school’s holding power, or the ability to keep students enrolled in school and learning until they graduate. Key findings from the latest study show the following.

• Texas schools are failing to graduate more than one of every five high school students
• The Texas public school attrition rates increased each year since 2020-21.
• It has taken almost four decades for Texas to reduce the state’s attrition rate by a mere 11 points from 33% to 22%.
• Total attrition rates and those of the state’s largest groups (Black, Latino, white) are higher than the year before COVID-19.
• For the class of 2023, Latino students and Black students were more than twice as likely to leave school without graduating than white students.
• The attrition rate gap between white students and Black students has more than doubled between 1985-86 and 2022-23.

See reporter FAQs and resources regarding attrition and dropout data (and downloadable graphics).

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Quick Links to IDRA’s Attrition Study Stories and Resources

Attrition Study 2022-23: Texas Public School Attrition Study, 2022-23 – Pandemic-Legacy High School Attrition Rate Increases Two Points; Black-White Gap Widens to 15 Points

Article for the 2022-23 study: Schools Struggle to Hold On to Students – Preview of IDRA’s 38th Annual Texas Public School Attrition Study

Infographic: Texas public schools are losing one out of five students

Infographic: 8 Types of Dropout Data Defined

Infographic: 6 Policies and Practices that Lead to Higher Dropout Rates

Trend graphs: See attrition rates and numbers over 10 years

Article: Preview of IDRA’s 36th Annual Texas Public School Attrition Study – A First Look at the Pandemic’s Effect on Attrition Rates

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Additional Resources

Report: College Bound and Determined – A report profiling what happens when a school district raises expectations for students instead of lowering them

Book: Courage to Connect: A Quality Schools Action Framework

Overview of the Valued Youth Partnership program, which keeps 98 percent of students in school (PDF)

Ideas and Strategies for Action

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