A critical review of the literature on school dropout

•An original and critical overview of current literature on early school leaving.•Clarifies what is problematic at school dropout.•Touches upon the underlying problems and methodological issues.•Investigates at what level and with which data previous literature is studied.

This paper reviews the growing literature on early school leaving. We clarify what is at stake with early school leaving, and touch upon underlying problems and methodological issues raised in the literature. The paper investigates the levels, the methods and models with which the topic has been studied, and discusses potential (dis)advantages of each of those. We focus on early school leaving in all its complexity, and on the interplay of relevant (levels of) factors, rather than on just certain factors, typically located in individual students, schools or families. The findings in the literature are discussed and placed into perspective. Finally, a wide set of policy measures are discussed.