While American educators fret about the mediocre educational performance of American students in international contests (e.g. the Program for International Student Assessment) and wonder why the Chinese education system produces such high-achieving students, educators, journalists, and public officials in China want to know what causes and how to…

Underachievement in gifted students is a behavior that can be modified by an awareness of its causes and the introduction of preventative strategies. Some of the dualities which suggest intervention procedures are push vs. pull, risk taking vs. risk making, encouragement vs. praise, and first best vs. first worst. (Author/SW)

Reviews some essential aspects of school safety planning. Discusses general evaluation objectives and assessment procedures, as well as a safe school planning process. Offers specific guidelines for handling violent incidents at school. Presents 25 preventive security measures that will help to lessen chances of violence occurring on campus.…

This document presents a manual to help program developers plan for a comprehensive school and community-based response to the drug problem as required by the Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act. Part I explains the purpose of the manual and discusses other work being conducted by the North Carolina Alcohol and Drug Defense Program. Part II…

Survey of school counselors revealed that schools with a written suicide policy incorporated more of the recommended components of suicide prevention programs than schools lacking written guidelines. Almost half the schools did not use components that are necessary to ensure a systematic and comprehensive suicide prevention program. (RJM)

This book is organized around several themes, namely: the changing context for the professional practice of school psychology; classroom- and school-based prevention and intervention programs; and professional training issues specific to intervention-oriented school psychology. The first three chapters address numerous reform and restructuring…

Direct and indirect intervention strategies involving family, peers, and college faculty and administration can prevent the learning disabled student from being severely maladjusted in the college environment. The terminology of primary prevention is defined and potential problems of specific disabilities identified. (Author/CB)

The Roberts Assistance Program (RAP), a model program for student assistance and suicide prevention established in 1988 by the Owen J. Roberts School District in Chester County, Pennsylvania provides services to students in kindergarten through grade 12. Core teams of school professionals from the high school and middle school have received…

Although there have been technological and structural advances in the schools within the past 10 years, the social environment for young people has severely deteriorated. Teenage pregnancy, guns in schools, illegal drugs, homelessness, suicide, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, and unemployment are some of the negative mental and physical…

This booklet presents 28 model programs for dealing with substance abuse which are currently used in New Jersey public schools. These programs are arranged in three categories based on the services which they provide: prevention (an attempt to avoid substance abuse problems before they appear); intervention (helping abusers who risk developing…

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) estimates that for every high school of 2,000 or more students in the United States, there is at least one successful suicide and thirty to fifty attempts each year. This report offers one state's examination of suicide and presents some effective responses to this problem. Discussed are those…

Examines how children's literature addresses the problems of bullying and victimization among pre- and early-adolescents. Books are reviewed and analyzed relative to the coping and problem-resolution strategies they portray. Individual and group techniques and strategies are suggested as means of incorporating children's literature into counseling…

Chapter 1 of this document defines school phobia as an exaggerated and irrational fear of attending school. In this chapter, school phobia is distinguished from truancy, the incidence and consequences of school phobia are discussed, characteristics of school phobia are described, and types of school phobia are identified. The chapter concludes…

Issues in effective diagnosis of such dishonest behavior as cheating, lying, and nonconfrontative stealing are discussed. Published intervention approaches for dishonest behavior are reviewed, including negative sanctions, direct appeals to morality, public affirmation, covert sensitization, timeout, reinforcement contingency procedures, and…

Describes innovative school programs for students at risk for alcohol and other drug problems. Describes model programs in Puget Sound school districts as involving school, families, community agencies, and youth in efforts to create school environments free of substance abuse and violence. (Author/NB)