Project RE:LEARNING failed to gain state-agency support because there was no widespread sense of crisis in Delaware to prompt restructuring, no shared conviction that schools needed dramatic changes. The Delaware story should caution systemic reformers to "front load" their energy and publicize serious problems. It takes more than a…

This article reviews the effects of child neglect on three developmental periods: infancy/preschool, school-aged and younger adolescents, and older adolescents and adults. The severe cognitive and academic deficits, the social withdrawal and limited peer interactions, and the internalizing problems of neglected children relative to physically…

The work of anthropologist John Ogbu regarding success and failure in the education of minority students is detailed. Ogbu focuses on why some minorities are successful in school while others are not despite similar cultural, language, and poverty barriers. He believes in critically important differences between immigrant and nonimmigrant…

Examines principal and teacher response to the implementation of a systemwide student promotion policy in Philadelphia (Pennsylvania). Concludes that although principals and teachers may agree in principle with promotional standards, conflicting values may interfere with implementation. (FMW)

Procedures to help prevent academic failure are discussed: (1) peer tutoring; (2) the Adaptive Education Learning Model; (3) Direct Instruction and Behavior Analysis; (4) Strategy Training; and (5) other cognitive behavioral techniques and self-management. Potential barriers to implementing prevention programs are discussed. (SLD)

Discussion of instructional systems design and development projects focuses on improving project planning and analysis to avoid failures. Case studies of failures of educational technology projects, including projects in developing nations and distance education projects, are presented; project engineering is discussed; and a model for successful…

Describes a project organized by the Organization of American States to address educational needs in the areas of formal education, teacher training, and non-formal education in South America and the Caribbean. Personnel and training are explained, and failures of the project due to cultural differences are discussed. (LRW)

Reviews research on instructional practices that help at-risk students. The programs reviewed fall into three general categories: prevention programs at the primary level, classroom change programs, and supplementary/remedial programs. Lists general features that characterize these programs. (TE)

The nature of the relationship between a first-year English-as-a-Second-Language teacher and her limited-English-speaking Chinese student is examined in a study of interactional patterns that affect student success. It is suggested that providing teachers with techniques for self-observation could help make them more aware of their teaching…

A university academic advising coordinator responds to a study of readmission among academically dismissed students, suggesting that while objective measures of success are important, they should not be the sole basis for readmission. Student attitudes, quality of advisor-student interactions, and individual student circumstances are seen as…

Examined the school and life experiences of former preschoolers 17 years after they participated in the Syracuse (New York) Prekindergarten Program. Data on influences that impinged upon the students indicated few differences between the school achieving and non-achieving students. Subjects from both groups were doing well, indicating the…

Compared the effects of TEACH, a perceptual remediation approach, to those of phonetic tutoring on first graders whose performance in the SEARCH Program during kindergarten indicated they were at risk for reading failure. There was no evidence for significant academic effects of participation in the TEACH program for at-risk children. (GLR)

The problem of failure and underachievement in foreign language learning is associated with negative attitudes and poor motivation rather than lack of aptitude. Results of a survey of low achievers at the University of Bahrain are reported. (19 references) (Author/LB)

Discusses efforts to achieve higher rates of adult literacy and pedagogical approaches to learning to read. Describes definitions of literacy, school standards, and possible reasons for high rates of adult illiteracy. Discusses teaching methods, particularly the Nellie Thomas method, which has had success in prison literacy programs. (JB)

Reviews the social and economic costs of at-risk youth and examines three conditions that create risk: poverty, lack of family guidance, and peer pressure. Stresses the need for (1) new roles for educators; and (2) collaboration among the educational, business, and human services communities in efforts to support youth and families. (BC)