Education and Urban Society Volume XX Number X Month XXXX xx-xx © 2008 Corwin Press, Inc. 10.1177/0013124508325681 http://eus.sagepub.com hosted at http://online.sagepub.com 1 Preventing Truancy and Dropout Among Urban Middle School Youth Understanding Community-Based Action From the Student’s Perspective Louie F. Rodríguez Florida International University, Miami Gilberto Q. Conchas University of California, Irvine This case study explores how a community-based truancy prevention program mediates against absenteeism, truancy, and dropping out and positively transforms the lives of Black and Latina/Latino middle school youth. Findings suggest that community–school partnerships are critical in the quest to combat truancy and the alarming dropout rate among urban youth. This study also shows how committed individuals can work to engage and empower low-income urban youth who are disengaged from school. Extensive interviews and observations with Latina/Latino and Black youth demonstrate how the intervention program mediates against social and academic failure. Using grounded theory, this article explores four student- identified dimensions that impact his/her (re)engagement with school: (a) the importance of space that promotes peer relations, (b) incentive structures within programs, (c) the need for social networks, and (d) youth advocacy as a mechanism for institutional accountability. Implications for combating truancy, reducing dropout, and promoting student engagement are discussed. Keywords: urban youth; dropout prevention; community–school partnerships Every Monday night, the organization rents four vans as a mode of trans- portation for the club participants. The four adults, including the president, drive around the low-income communities of metro Boston and pick up each student at their doorstep. According to the adults, the purpose of picking up every student is to make sure that they get to club and to ensure their safety. On this particular day, we ride with the president as he picks up nine students. We turn into a housing development, the projects, and we meander through the parking lots in the van as the sun goes down.