Though students at-risk for school dropout appear to recognize the important contribution of teachers to students' persistence to graduation, it is unclear if teachers are equally aware of their empowering influence. Gaining a better understanding of teachers' beliefs about dropout is important to continued efforts to develop interventions that effectively support students to graduation. This article describes the results of a pilot study that surveyed 95 high school teachers from a Midwestern school district about their perceptions of school dropout, along with their perception of teachers' role in supporting students' school completion. Teachers perceptions of the causes of dropout tended to focus on factors outside of their control. Factors that support strong student-teacher relationships were more moderately rated as contributing to dropout. A quarter of the teachers reported that they had only limited influence on students' decisions to stay in or dropout of school.

Research on the construct of teacher efficacy has demonstrated its positive relationship to a number of student outcomes, such as improved academic achievement, increased levels of self-efficacy, and a stronger belief in their ability to solve a math task and their motivation for completing it. Based on these findings, this research considered the possibility that teacher efficacy for supporting at-risk students could be related to their understanding of high school dropout, potentially suggesting ways to improve schools' dropout prevention efforts. This study was an initial exploration of the relationship between high school teachers' perceived efficacy for supporting at-risk students and their perceptions of their roles in the prevention of school dropout. Participants were 159 teachers from 4 Midwestern high schools, two in suburban areas and two in rural areas. Participants included both special and general education teachers from all content areas. Results suggest that teachers with higher self-efficacy for supporting at-risk students are more likely to identify causes of dropout within a school's control and more supportive of schools' role in dropout prevention.