For many decades, the social imbalances had a significant impact on the academic success of African Americans. High school completion rates for African American students were disproportionately lower when compared to their Caucasian counterparts. This purpose of this qualitative study was to display factors that contributed to African American students' decisions to discontinue their K-12 education and enrollment into General Education Development (GED) programs. The participants in this case study were African American students enrolled in a GED program within a local community college located in the southern United States. Themes that emerged from this research were grade level at discontinuation, type of K-12 school setting, student and teacher relationships, relationships with peers, scholastic experiences, community support, community resources, familial support, teacher and parent relationships and parents' education attainment. The findings materialized that a lack of interaction existed between the teachers and parents. It was also determined that there was little knowledge of availability and offerings of community support or community resources regarding the students' K-12 scholastic experiences. Relationships with peers and parents for the participants were mostly positive, but little knowledge was uncovered in regard to the parents' backgrounds with regards to education. These findings could develop into future efforts aiding with dropout prevention through community support and better teacher and parent interaction to decrease social imbalance and to promote a more unified society. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]