While focusing on the urban context, this article reviews research regarding the family and peer contexts of risk for antisocial behavior and school failure as well as recent empirical evidence supporting strategies for intervention. Early intervention, family interventions, and school environments that discourage aggression are urged. (Contains…

A systems perspective on the development of disruptive behavioral disorders is presented and discussed with an emphasis on correlated constraints. The concept of correlated constraints suggests that behavior development involves the interconnected contributions of multiple factors working together as a system. Implications are considered in…

Male subjects (n=130) evaluated performance of targets who, prior to and during the performance, offered no excuse, claimed intended low effort, claimed anxiety, or claimed drug impairment. Subjects evaluated objectively equivalent performances more negatively if they came from an excuse-making target than a no-excuse target. (JBJ)

This article describes the characteristics of college students with language learning disorders and other at-risk students who have difficulty learning a foreign language. Research which points to deficits in native language abilities and poor phonological processing skills as the cause of foreign-language learning problems is discussed. (Contains…

Addresses "the retardation problem," over-aged students retained in a grade because of failure to make "normal" annual progress. Concentrates on how influences in the 1940s in South Australia refocused attentions on over-aged students changing the substance of educational debate regarding their classroom presence and the…

In remote Navajo Mountain, Dine children have no formal educational opportunities after eighth grade. A U.S. District Court judge's late-1970s ruling that spread responsibility among the U.S. Government, the Navajo Nation, Utah, and the local school district has proved unworkable. Any negotiated settlement must begin with identification of shared…

A study involving 35 Hong Kong undergraduates tested the Regulatory Focus Theory, which maintains that people may focus on achieving positive outcomes (have a promotion focus) or on avoiding negative ones (have a prevention focus). Results indicate the prevention focus group is more likely to join a competition. (Contains references.) (Author/CR)

Investigates how adolescent's self-evaluation in junior high school (global self-esteem and self-evaluation related to school) influences the way he/she copes when experiencing a first difficulty in high school. Reveals the low predictive power of contextual self-evaluation on functional and dysfunctional factors and the importance of global…

School desegregation court cases provided the impetus to early experimental efforts at government takeover of public schools. Most recently, states have taken over school districts for failure to demonstrate adequate academic progress (educational bankruptcy). North Carolina's ABC program is profiled. Legal, financial, and organizational…

This article addresses the issues associated with school failure, delinquency, and violence. Prevention strategies for diverting at-risk children and youth are described and illustrated, including supporting families, developing and implementing school-based prevention approaches, supporting schools, improving academic and social competence, and…

Focus groups with typical high school students, alternative school and high school students at risk for failure, and alternative and high school teachers of at-risk students examined their perceptions of school goals for such students, barriers to reaching those goals, and accommodations available to help students. Discusses the thematic…

Federal legislation has increased the participation of students with disabilities in higher education, but they are less likely to attain a postsecondary degree than students without disabilities. In this paper, I discuss reasons for academic failure and illustrate ten strategies that instructors can implement to increase the academic success of…

The purpose of this study was to determine whether differences exist in the availability of instructional options for struggling students and students who did not pass state-required tests based on three school characteristics: retention practices, awards or sanctions, and school level. Participants were 242 teachers and school psychologists from…

One comprehensive curriculum designed to remediate chronic reading failure in adolescents directly addresses all the language weaknesses typical of these individuals. In many interlocking strands, phonological, semantic, syntactic, pragmatic, and discourse processing skills are cumulatively and systematically taught over several years.…

The impact of a previously successful or unsuccessful experience on the subsequent acquisition of a related task is not well understood. The nature of past experience may have even greater impact in individuals with learning deficits, as their cognitive processes can be easily disrupted. Mice with a targeted disruption of the [alpha] and [delta]…