Russell W. Rumberger

Russell Rumberger
Russell W. Rumberger
Professor Emeritus,
University of California, Santa Barbara

Russell W. Rumberger is professor emeritus in the Gevirtz School of Education at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His research has focused on such topics as education and work, disadvantaged students, school effectiveness, education policy, and school dropouts. He was director of the California Dropout Research Project and a member of the National Research Council’s Committee on Increasing High School Students’ Engagement and Motivation to Learn; he served on the panel of the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences that produced the Dropout Prevention Practice Guide. Rumberger is author of the book Dropping Out: Why Students Drop Out of High School and What Can Be Done About It. He received his PhD in education from Stanford University.

updated 2020

Publications by Russell W. Rumberger
The Scale and Distribution of Community College Participation Among California High School Students
Research shows that dual enrollment—a practice in which high school students take college courses while they are still in high school—has multiple benefits for student success in both systems. To capitalize on those benefits, California and other…
This report examines high school graduation rates in California. It reviews the various approaches to calculating high school graduation rates, focusing on the challenges and limitations of the most widely used rate, the Four-Year Adjusted Cohort…
The Influence of Preschool Centers on Children’s Social and Cognitive Development
Previous research has demonstrated that attending center care is associated with cognitive benefits for young children. However, little is known about the ideal age for children to enter such care or the "right" amount of time, both weekly and…
The Influence of Preschool Centers on Children’s Development Nationwide
Young children, at least among those from poor families and within the domains of cognitive growth and school readiness, benefit from exposure to preschool or childcare centers. Carefully controlled experiments, exemplified by the Perry Preschool or…