Questionnaires completed by 777 participants evaluated 32 pilot summer programs in the United Kingdom designed to help high-risk 16-year-olds make the transition from secondary school to adult life and to enhance eight personal and social skills through outdoor activities. Results indicate the programs had a positive impact, but numerous…

Community groups, volunteers, and local businesses helped a small North Carolina town initiate many programs for at-risk youth including Head Start, DARE, after-school programs at community centers and the library, summer programs, park development, and reduced swimming pool fees. A program that informs crime victims of the status of their cases…

This article describes the development of an "apartment school," a school established in an apartment complex by Hazel Valley Elementary School (Washington), which provides supplementary instruction for high-risk children after school and during the summers, and offers adult education. Quantitative and qualitative evaluation results are…

This study followed up teachers two years after they had attended a summer institute on gifted education to identify changes teachers made in their classrooms. It identified factors that either supported (student success, personal challenge, and increasing self confidence) or impeded (feelings of isolation, school bureaucracy, large class size,…

The Summer Institute in Computer Science (SICS) at the University of California in Irvine invites Native American community college students to spend 6 weeks studying computer science. The students live on campus and intern with a large corporation, sharpening computer skills and establishing mentoring relationships with business professionals.…

Internships enable secondary and college students to gain experience, learn how an agency functions, and establish a network of contacts within organizations. Thirty-two summer internships, co-ops, and minority school programs are listed alphabetically. Each entry contains a brief program description, prerequisites, deadline for applications, and…

Discusses what three researchers discovered about schools, home environments, and inequitable education, examining the achievement gap between middle-class and poor, minority students and noting that summer school does little to close the gap. Suggests a strategy to boost the summer achievement of poor children that would give them the extra…

A summer program was designed to provide a social learning and work experience for students with developmental disabilities. For 3 weeks, high school students with developmental disabilities participated in a variety of jobs on a college campus and worked alongside college students. This collaborative experience enabled students with and without…

Higher education institutions in the United Kingdom are subject to a variety of pressures to encourage a more inclusive and broader based student body. This has resulted in an extended range of flexible course delivery patterns for mature, part-time students. This article discusses a pilot to extend the academic year for a small cohort of such…

In this article, the authors describe the eight-day Summer Institute, a part of an on-going "American History as Dialogue" Project funded by the United States Department of Education Teaching American History grant program. The focus of this project is both historical inquiry and the history of race in America. The goal of the project is to…

We conducted a research case study to ascertain the effect of a bridge program on fostering self-growth and academic readiness for college. Academic wholism provided the vehicle to promote self-awareness, self-motivation, and academic maturity. The rippling effect of this program extended beyond academics to the personal level. (Contains 2…

This pilot study focuses on the potential of Evidence-based Dialogue Mapping as a participatory action research tool to investigate young teenagers' scientific argumentation. Evidence-based Dialogue Mapping is a technique for representing graphically an argumentative dialogue through Questions, Ideas, Pros, Cons and Data. Our research objective is…

There is a strong relationship between students' socioeconomic status and their levels of academic achievement. Although educators should be held accountable for improving the performance of all students, including those living in poverty, schools alone can't eliminate the negative factors associated with poverty that lead to a large achievement…

Austin Independent School District served more than 13,000 students in summer programs during 2009, providing opportunities for accelerated learning, maintenance of academic skills between school years, course credit recovery, state achievement tests, or school-level transition activities. This report summarizes this information.

Given the lack of preparation incoming school district superintendents receive and the many challenges they face, this article reviews the approach of the few existing programs for new superintendents and describes the leadership development strategies that would be beneficial. With this background, the article presents the findings from an…