What happened to all those missing college students?

There is a sad twist to the District's Ballou High School scandal not addressed in the reports issued by D.C. education officials and their consultant, Alvarez & Marsal. It concerns something called summer melt, a national problem that has never gotten much attention.

Several scholars, particularly Karen Arnold, Benjamin L. Castleman and Lindsay C. Page, have discovered that as many as 20 percent of high school graduates signed up for college don't appear at their chosen campus in the fall. In their 2014 book on the subject, Castleman and Page said the students' desire to further their education is often overcome by "the lures of home, staying with a girlfriend or boyfriend, receiving a steady paycheck, and continuing to contribute financially and otherwise to their family."