As he looks toward graduation in two weeks, Edwin has trouble comprehending what he’s accomplished. He’s one of eight students posting video diaries about the highlights and challenges of high school throughout the school year for Project Dropout.

Edwin is asked to make a presentation to next year’s senior class. He’s one of eight students posting video diaries about the highlights and challenges of high school throughout the school year for Project Dropout.

Edwin can see the light at the end of the tunnel… The school year ends in less than 2 weeks! He’s one of eight students posting video diaries about the highlights and challenges of high school throughout the school year for Project Dropout.

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For the communities of Cape Cod and suburban Boston, young people dropping out of high school is a serious issue. The statistics are lower than in the city, to be sure, but on Cape Cod alone for the Class of 2008, dropout rates ranged from zero in Provincetown to seventeen percent in Mashpee — with the highest numbers found in the districts with the most needy children. As part of WGBH’s ongoing, in- depth look at the dropout issue, our reporter Sean Corcoran talks to young people about why dropping out became an option, and he looks at some efforts to keep students in school.

People have ideas and assumptions about high school dropouts and so-called ‘at-risk youth’ in general. 17-year-old Allison Vilad of Marston Mills on Cape Cod knows this, she says, because she’s one of the students that carries that somewhat distasteful label.

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Last week, the federal government released some forty-four billion dollars in federal stimulus money for education, with another round of funding due later this year. Among people concerned about the state’s dropout rates, there’s optimism that the new dollars can be put toward the problem. But budget restraints already are hitting dropout prevention efforts, forcing cutbacks and perhaps even ending some programs.

When Beverly High School’s regular school day ends around 2:45 each afternoon, large back-hoes and dump-trucks begin ramping up their clamorous work on the school’s 81 million dollar addition and renovation project. And also around that time, about a dozen students — students who’ve had trouble in school and have even contemplated dropping out — they’re starting their academic day.

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By Sean Corcoran (WCAI)

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When a young person drops out of high school in the year 2009, it’s a decision that often comes with consequences for more than only the student. It’s a community problem, particularly on Cape Cod, a region already experiencing an exodus of young people. Dropout rates further threaten the Cape’s shrinking workforce and the area’s ability to attract employers.

Stephanie Davidson was on her way to the school office to pick up papers last year, documents that essentially would let her teachers, the school district and the state know she was dropping out. After 11 years in school, she’d decided there was nothing else she could do, really. Dropping out was the only option she had left.

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Click here to watch the archived Project Dropout webcast!

Job Corps is a federally funded residential program that teaches job skills to young people while encouraging them to finish their high school education. This “Greater Boston” report looks at what has proven to be an effective solution to the dropout problem.

Studio Guests: Jennifer James, Undersecretary of Labor and Workforce Development; Shawn Brown, Boston Private Industry Council.

Produced by Jared Bowen and Meghan Reese

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Over the course of the Project Dropout series, WBUR has looked at why some students leave school, how the problem affects the state and some examples of successful dropout prevention programs.

Here’s a small sampling of some of the voices we’ve heard:

I dropped out in middle school. I did seventh grade three times. My parents never enforced school. They never cared about my grades.

The fact that the dropout rate is not increasing is not by itself something to celebrate and we do need to do better.

This dropout issues is multifaceted. By the time a kid enters your classroom there’s whole bunch of issues that are stacked up on each other.

That’s 21-year-old former student Kendra Barlow from New Bedford, State Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester and Boston high-school teacher William Hayes.

Close to 100 Massachusetts students drop out of school every day.

As the conclusion to our series on the dropout problem, WBUR looks at what state officials hope to do about that alarming statistic.

To talk about possible policy solutions, WBUR spoke to Jill Norton, executive director of the Rennie Center for Education Research and Policy; and Tony Pierantozzi, superintendent of Somerville Public Schools and a member of the state’s dropout prevention commission.