While the educational structure seems to meet the needs of most students, a small but significant minority does not see the need to complete high school. To improve the identification of potential dropouts and describe the differences between dropouts and persisters, 536 Kentucky high school students and dropouts were studied. An unexpected outcome was that urban and rural differences were observed on many of the family, personal, and subjective variables. Dropouts were more likely to: (1) be from broken homes; (2) have parents with lower educational levels and occupational status; (3) be white males who were retained more often than persisters; (4) have lower IQ scores; (5) be absent from school; and (6) not get along well with teachers. The findings suggest specific variables related to the dropout/persister problem. (JAC)