FRONTLINE’s new report the “Middle School Moment” explores the work of Johns Hopkins University researcher Dr. Robert Balfanz who has uncovered a series of indicators that he says can predict how likely a student is to drop out of high school. Balfanz’s research says that in high-poverty schools, if a sixth grade child attends school less than 80 percent of the time, receives an unsatisfactory behavior grade in a core course, or fails math or English, there is a 75 percent chance that they will later drop out of high school — absent effective intervention.

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