Too Cool for School? Patterns and Determinants for Dropouts and Re-enrollers in Upper Secondary Education in Norway

• Main Author: Myklebust, Martine Jonette Hoseth
• Format: Master Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2021
• Subjects: Norway; Sogn; Finnmark; Northern Norway
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10852/87349; http://urn.nb.no/URN:NBN:no-89976

This thesis investigates the different patterns and determinants for different groups of students in upper secondary education in Norway that enrolled into high school in 2008. The students are followed for a ten-year period after starting school in order to investigate their movements in and out of education. The main focus is on dropout students that re-enrolled back into education after some period outside, and what differentiates these students from dropouts that did not re-enroll. The findings are consistent with the international literature. I found that dropout students constitute approximately one third of the school cohort, and that the majority of dropouts re-entered education at some point. Despite the high re-enrollment rate did half of the dropout group remain outside school by the end of the analysis period as permanent dropouts. 20% of the sample is categorized as dropouts five years after enrolling into upper secondary education. This share decreases with four percentage points to 16% in 2018, ten years after starting high school. By the end of the analysis period 82% of the sample is registered with completion of a high school degree, implying that 18% did not obtain a degree during the analysis period. By having an analysis period for ten years, this life course perspective helps understand and observe the movements in and out of education. The analysis shows that individuals keeps moving in and out of education throughout the whole analysis period. Ordinary students have higher educated parents and higher average grades compared to dropout students. The ones that re-enroll have higher grade averages compared to the dropouts that never re-enroll. The most common for individuals that choose to leave school drops out one time and re-enrolls back one time. The northern region has the highest share of dropout students, and the county of Finnmark is the only council municipality in Norway that has equal shares of dropouts and ordinary students. As a comparison is the average for the whole sample a dropout rate of 35%. Five years after enrolling into upper secondary education Sogn og Fjordane has the highest share of students that completed with a high school degree. This pattern is unchanged until ten years after enrolling into upper secondary education. Grades from lower secondary school matter for the movements in and out of school and is related to gender and parental education. Pupils with highly educated parents produces higher grade averages in upper secondary education, and girls dominate the upper part of the grade distribution. Boys drop out to a larger extent than girls, as they dominate all of the dropout categories. Grade averages is higher for ordinary students compared to dropouts and re-enrollers. The regression conducted on dropout probability shows that mother’s education and higher grade averages has negative significant association on the probability of becoming a dropout student, while going to school in northern Norway is associated with an increases in the probability of becoming a dropout compared to going to school in South. The regression on re-enrollment probability shows that having a foreign citizenship decreases the probability of becoming a re-enroller while mother’s education and high average grades increases the probability of becoming a re-enroller. Mother’s education seems to matter more for movements in and out of school more than does father’s education. School region seems to have a bigger impact associated with dropout probability than re-enrollment probability. Both regressions were conducted using the same model specification and the same regressors. These findings imply that identical model specifications and controlling for the same background characteristics has different implications on the probability to drop out and re-enroll respectively.