Q. How do I find peer reviewed info on african American school drop out for a research paper in ways to improve this number

Go to the databases by A to Z linked below.  Click on the arrow next to Database Subjects, click on Education to find the best bets.

I used the link to the National Center for Educational Statistics and pulled up a report  on dropout rates, with information about demographics if you need this kind of data. http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2012/2012006.pdf

I also searched EBSCO Academic Search Complete for the phrase dropout African American. I then used the limiters on the left to select peer reviewed articles and limited to articles published in 2000 or after. You can play around with the results using those limiters.

 The other EBSCO databases are worthwhile, including ERIC. You can limit to peer reviewed articles in the left column after you run your search.

 If you can use articles that are not peer reviewed, but are from reference sources, you might want to try the Hot Topics page in the databases guide. These have articles on current events.