A survey of the school dropout problem in the United States focuses attention on (1) defining school dropouts, (2) the magnitude of the dropout problem, (3) types and extent of research on school dropouts, (4) why pupils drop out of school, (5) factors leading to early school withdrawal, (6) what happens to school dropouts, (7) employment opportunities for dropouts, and (8) measures successful in reducing the number of dropouts. Research on the subject of early school withdrawal is found to be abundant, but results are found to be inconclusive and noncomparable. A classificatory scheme is devised with which research results can be made more comparable. Significant literature pertaining to each topic is reviewed and areas where research is lacking are pointed out. An extensive bibliography lists 149 selected references. (TT)