Dropout Program Suffers Rocky Start

But the Alabama Guard is confident its academy will show improvement.

An Alabama academy designed to help high school dropouts get back on track is hoping to recover from a dropout problem of its own: Since the program’s start in January, nearly three-quarters of participants have either left on their own or been expelled.

That turn of events has been an embarrassment for those running the Alabama National Guard Youth Challenge Academy, part of an effort by the National Guard to help teens obtain General Educational Development certificates.

Adjutant Gen. Mark Bowen, the head of the Alabama National Guard, attributes the high dropout rate to a rushed enrollment process. Because of a time squeeze between the start-up of the program and the beginning of classes, some applicants who did not meet all the academic and behavioral requirements were...