Through a new lens: Contemporary psychological perspectives on school completion and dropping out of high school.

In 1996, the American Psychological Association recommended that the association work to increase the participation of psychology and psychologists in assisting in national, state, and local efforts to prevent school drop-out (American Psychological Association, 1996). The purpose of this special issue is to describe the psychological scholarship that must underlie these efforts, as it has been reflected in the work of an Interdivisional Task Force on School Dropout Prevention. This article describes the complex understanding of high school completion that emerged from Task Force discussions, and the implications this has for efforts to prevent school dropout and promote school completion.