Des Moines, Iowa's School within a School is locally funded program of instruction in basic skills, career guidance, and counseling support to meet needs of at-risk seventh- to tenth-grade students attending city's comprehensive middle and high schools. Program evaluations indicate declining dropout rate, increased attendance, and progress toward…

Voluntary national standards will not correct the gross inequities in the educational experiences of poor children and do not address the question of "Whose knowledge is of most worth?" Content standards enable schools and policymakers to avoid addressing the substantive causes of student failure. (SK)

Following the August 1991 state takeover of the Paterson (New Jersey) Schools, the new district superintendent launched a program to improve the city's four worst elementary schools. The process involved creating an administrative team to evaluate principals and school programs, replacing key staff, forming a partnership with Columbia University's…

Investigated the causal explanations children use to account for common experiences. In the study, 60 preschoolers watched videotaped puppet shows designed to elicit causal attributions. Most children predominantly used internal, unstable, and specific attributions. (CB)

Adherence to program planning principles does not guarantee participation. Attention must be paid to characteristics that make a program responsive: target audience, promotion and marketing, competition, and logistics. (SK)

Sometimes, parents must decide whether to have their child repeat a grade. Research indicates children who stay back do not do better than comparable children who are promoted and retention can have a very negative effect. The article guides parents on what to do and ask in such a situation. (SM)

Examined whether children identified by teachers at different levels of risk for school failure were distinguished by peers in terms of social status and behavioral descriptors. Findings from 348 kindergartners showed significant effect for risk groups for both sociometric measures and descriptors. No-risk group was viewed more positively than…

Discusses common and critical global problems related to children who are at risk. Section on academic failure examines programs for preschool children, education for disadvantaged children at the elementary school level, and an ecological approach to the problem. Other sections explore issues of youth alienation, the future of the human species,…

Surveys examined junior high schoolers' psychosocial characteristics and self-reports of deviant behavior, investigating links between self-derogation in school and academic failure mediated by a disposition to deviate from conventional expectations. Academic failure was in part motivated behavior that was an adaptation to previous self-devaluing…

This paper briefly considers past and recent research in the field of bilingualism and then proceeds to describe the project that attempted to turn the educational failure of a group of children in a situation of subtractive bilingualism into success. (Contains 18 references.) (JL)

Reviews the monograph "Predicting and Preventing Early School Failure: Classroom Activities for the Preschool Child" by Marvin L. Simner. The book contains helpful practical activities and information about resources and intervention methods. It describes only one test, lacks adequate discussion of second language learners, language problems, and…

Differences between the planning and execution of two 1911-12 polar expeditions transcend matters of aims and resources. Scott's planning approach was deterministic, whereas Amundsen's was deliberative, resolving each problem in its practical, human context. Like Scott's expedition, current U.S. and British attempts to improve education practice…

Uses Stanley Pogrow's (1996) ideas on reforms and why they often fail as a frame against which a number of controversies associated with Discipline-Based Art Education (DBAE) are examined. Describes some myths used to characterize DBAE's philosophical, cultural, and curricular orientations; contrasts them with dimensions of reality identified by…

During the 1990s, the school has become the center of blame. Policymakers seem more interested in identifying failing schools than celebrating successes. This paper uses case-study research on a once-innovative Ontario high school to show that "deadwood" schools do not kill themselves, but need outsiders' help. (42 references) (MLH)

Discusses the social and emotional problems of unrecognized gifted children whose talents exist in domains distinct from the intellectual, academic, and athletic realms. Two case studies are presented of two gifted elementary students, along with interventions for enhancing effective growth among such students. (CR)