Miami-Dade is just one of the 72 percent of Florida school districts labeled "failing" under the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, which requires schools to prove students displayed Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) in math and reading for two years running. Nationwide, the figure is a startling 27 percent. As states bump up against the…

We compared a reading intervention that consisted of explicit, self-regulatory strategy instruction to a strategy intervention that was less explicit to determine the impact on the reading-specific self-efficacy, attributions, and affect of students with reading disabilities (RD). Participants included 20 students with RD who were entering grades…

This report, produced by the National High School Center at the American Institutes for Research, outlines steps that schools can take to identify at-risk students and provide the necessary support systems and relevant interventions to assist students in obtaining a high school diploma. Further, the report discusses the use of early warning data…

In today's school systems, students of color, particularly in urban settings, represent the majority student populations (Lewis, Hancock, James, & Larke, in press). Interestingly, the educators--teachers and administrators--that comprise these settings are predominately White, and, in turn, the students of color commonly face pressures that…

Purpose: This paper seeks to surface less positive aspects of communities of practice (CoPs), regardless of emergent or organisationally managed, grounded in political-power interactions. Examples are provided from the authors' experiences of a research-based CoP within UK higher education. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is primarily…

Student academic failure and serious behavior problems are closely intertwined. Two related bodies of research pertain to the crossover of academic problems and behavioral issues: behavioral scripts and best instructional practices. The authors drew on that research to (a) help explicate relationships between aggressive or disruptive student…

For decades, educators and researchers have observed practices of educational inequality in U.S. schools. In a multicultural democracy, schooling without educational equality constitutes injustice. This article explores the limitation of the current traditional teacher education in preparing highly competent and socially conscious teachers needed…

This book describes the context of school retention and evaluates its effects by tracking the experiences of a large representative sample of Baltimore (Maryland) school children from first grade through middle school. The first chapter is a discussion of major issues of retention such as: (1) why the topic is often pushed aside in schools; (2)…

This paper discusses the relationship between students with learning disabilities and delinquency and the implications for the vocational rehabilitation process. Learning disabilities and juvenile delinquency are defined to establish a theoretical and conceptual framework. Four hypotheses that have been proposed to explain why individuals with…

This paper looks at the sources of fear among incoming undergraduate students and discusses possible ways to alleviate such fears. The paper reports that, though many students have difficulty naming their fears, several can easily be identified such as fear of the unknown. This fear can be dealt with or forestalled through tours of the campus.…

This report presents findings on school leaving, part of a 5-year study on the transition of youth with disabilities from secondary school to early adulthood. Telephone interviews were conducted in 1987 with parents of approximately 8,000 youth (ages 13 to 21 and enrolled in special education in 1985-86) representing all 11 federal special…

This report reviews prekindergarten programs in fiscal years 1987-88 in Illinois, where an estimated 112,000 children of 3-4 years of age are at risk of academic failure. Each year, State Board of Education staff collect data on prekindergarten programs and the children they serve in order to answer four primary questions: (1) What are the…

This paper identifies and assesses factors that may characterize students at risk of dropping out, based on a ninth grade class of Cincinnati (Ohio) public school students which was followed for five years, from 1984-85 to 1988-89. The paper aims to develop a quick, easy, and reliable method that teachers, counselors, and principals can use to…

A father describes how the public school system made his daughter, Charlie, into a disabled reader. Charlie had experienced early reading success both at home and in kindergarten, and enjoyed reading. Placed in the low reading group in first grade, Charlie resisted the dull, structured exercises of remedial reading instruction which she received…

Student attrition is a major problem for American colleges and universities because an increasing number of enrollees fit the demographic and socioeconomic profile of "high-risk" students, who consist in general of minorities, the academically disadvantaged, the disabled, and those of low socioeconomic status. Declining enrollments leave…