However, recent statistics suggest that as few as two thirds of youth graduate within four years of entering high school, and that the odds of graduating from high school for black and Hispanic youth barely break 50/50 ( Greene & Winters, 2006 Miao & Haney, 2004 Swanson & Chaplin, 2003). Graduating from high school is an important developmental task that marks the transition out of adolescence and into adulthood.

Moreover, the relationship between switching schools and dropout varies depending on a youth's propensity for switching schools. We find that while over half the association between switching schools and dropout is explained by observed characteristics prior to 9 th grade, switching schools is still associated with dropout. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, this study uses propensity score matching to pair youth who switched high schools with similar youth who stayed in the same school. However, whether switching schools actually puts youth at risk for dropout is uncertain, since youth who switch schools are similar to dropouts in their levels of prior school achievement and engagement, which suggests that switching schools may be part of the same long-term developmental process of disengagement that leads to dropping out. Youth who switch schools are more likely to demonstrate a wide array of negative behavioral and educational outcomes, including dropping out of high school.

Ne moves transition high school