In an attempt to better understand the phenomenon of early school leaving ("dropping out"), relationships among several areas of academic achievement (STEP) and ability (SCAT) and early school leaving were investigated. The study focused on early identification of school dropouts using ability and achievement measures and growth from fifth to seventh grade as measured by difference scores on several achievement tests. The dropouts were found to be about a year older than their classmates in the fifth grade and to score significantly lower on several ability and achievement measures in the fifth grade. No evidence was found to support the hypothesis that data relating to a student's academic growth from fifth to seventh grade would significantly increase the ability to predict future dropouts, or that patterns of academic growth were different for dropouts and nondropouts.
