Thirty-three percent of teenagers who enter high school in the United States do not graduate with a traditional diploma. Many who drop out of conventional high schools choose to take the General Educational Development (GED) exam. With numbers of teenage GED recipients on the rise, reasons for the shift in teenage recipients is unclear. Using primarily qualitative research methods, this dissertation attempts to uncover some factors and conditions in Maine teens decisions to leave high school and opt for the non-traditional graduation. Many of the conditions that influenced these decisions...