Early interventions and educational expectations that promote access, quality education, and the right to career options are necessary parts of any dropout prevention program. This report suggests that preventing school failure and empowering students to succeed should be the goals of such programs. It discusses student underachievement and specifically the inequity of educational services for language minority students. It maintains the importance of collaboration between school, community, and home in preventing dropping out. The material is organized as follows: (1) review of literature on factors and conditions driving the high risk and dropout problem; (2) effect of student empowerment on academic success; (3) five stages of social and academic indicators that foster and/or contribute to dropping out; (4) need for collaborative intervention programs; (5) process for identification, planning, development, and implementation of a school dropout prevention plan; (6) some suggested interventions; (7) summary; (8) bibliography; and (9) appendices which include a sample mission statement on dropout prevention, definitions of a school dropout, roundtable recommendations, lists of members of roundtable task forces, and project questionnaires. (PS)