Presents an ecological theory of educational risk that conceptualizes this risk as discordant child-environment interaction that may occur in the classroom (microrisk), in the home (mesorisk), in the community (exorisk), and in the larger society (macrorisk). Discusses intervention strategies to reduce the prevalence of risk in each of these…

Examined how contextual variables affect types of instructional adaptations teachers propose for students experiencing academic failure. Within academic areas (reading or mathematics), teachers (n=76) were assigned randomly to three idea generation formats: oral independent, written independent, and assisted with ideas for potential solutions.…

Uses event-history analysis to explore whether and how grade retention influenced graduation outcomes for a cohort of 707 youths from an urban school system. Repeating a grade from kindergarten to grade 6 was associated with an increase in the odds of dropping out. Explores the impact of being over age for grade. (SLD)

Addresses the problem of students who want to do well but cannot manage the effects of failure or wrong actions. They have a conscience and experience guilt when they err, but rather than using mistakes as opportunities to rectify their behavior, they are overwhelmed by their inadequacy, which leads to self-defeating patterns of behavior.…

A project conducted by two university instructors and a group of Madison-area primary teachers attempted to improve at-risk students' early literacy capabilities. The Teachers Helping Teachers project helped participating teachers create their own small professional-development communities, emphasize children's strengths, and improve instruction.…

By 1993, New York City's multicultural and innovative Children of the Rainbow curriculum had been discontinued and the education chancellor fired. This article examines the curriculum's development and implementation and the controversies surrounding it. After-effects linger, as other U.S. districts address various social issues in the school…

Explores the potential of hybridity for supporting critical pedagogies that seek to transform the knowledge, texts, and identities of the school curriculum. Draws on microanalyses of oral and written texts constructed by a Latina student perceived to be struggling academically. Shows the student interweaving home, school, and peer language…

European educational systems are under immense pressure to change, develop, improve, and satisfy many conflicting demands. Educational development and improvement in these countries is unlikely to progress in a neat, orderly, and linear fashion. Applying nonlinear (chaos) theory to development theory may aid understanding of educational…

American and Korean fourth- and fifth-graders were administered the Student Social Attribution Scale (SSAS), designed to assess students' explanations for social successes and failures. Results reveal that Korean children showed significantly higher Failure Effort scores and American children showed significantly higher Success Ability scores.…

This case study details a problematic adoption. The study briefly describes the requirements of constitutional and Illinois law that set the framework for the ChildLaw Center's internal debate on the case, presents the competing considerations confronted in the case, and the decision made and the implications of the appellate court ruling in the…

The association between executive function deficits (EFDs) and functional outcomes were examined among children and adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Participants were children and adolescents with (n = 259) and without (n = 222) ADHD, as ascertained from pediatric and psychiatric clinics. The authors defined EFD as…

Many parents question what is normal and what their kids should be doing at different ages. More and more, parents are turning to their local libraries for advice. Besides being empathetic supporters and referring parents to the rich resources within our libraries that detail language-development milestones for young children, librarians need to…

Socioeconomic gradients and growth-mixture model trajectories of word-reading achievement were examined from kindergarten to Grade 5 in all the children who entered kindergarten within a school district and started receiving literacy-intensive instruction from that point on. In kindergarten, the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and…

This research addresses the extent of student impairment in Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education (COAMFTE) accredited marriage and family therapy programs, indicators of impairment used by program directors, faculty time devoted to impaired students, and the frequency of student dismissal. The data come from a…

Sutherland and Singh (2004) focus on the relationship between students' inappropriate behaviors and academic failure, articulating how this relationship may be mediated by learned helplessness in a reciprocally negative reinforcing cycle. In responding to their work, the authors suggest a thread of disciplined inquiry and contextual framework for…