This report describes the activities of the Ounce of Prevention Fund, founded in 1982 as a public-private partnership to promote the well-being of Illinois children and families through various health and education programs. The Fund focuses its efforts on communities with limited resources, mainly in the Chicago metropolitan area. Among the…

This volume contains descriptions of programs for student success and retention at 68 state colleges and universities in the United States. Each institution is a participant in the National Retention Project, a research-based project working within broader campus cultures that are committed to providing access and success to students traditionally…

The Positive Impact Program (PIP) is a program that involves the community through role models as mentors in striving to meet the needs of at-risk students. The program is directed by 16 black men who work every week with school-age black males (N=18) who have been identified as being "at-risk" by their teachers. The teachers identified…

The Northeast Louisiana University (NLU) Dropout Intervention Strategy Program (1990-1991) was designed to train administrators and teachers in junior high schools to recognize, treat, and relate to at-risk students who have been identified as potential school dropouts. The 13 participating schools were identified as having potentially high…

Conditions that foster and hinder participatory research are examined, using examples from one such research project aimed at dropout reduction undertaken with students in a "last chance" high school. The 13 student researchers sometimes used racial, gender, and social class differences to gain power and display undemocratic behavior within the…

Information is provided on factors associated with the effectiveness of continuation high schools in California. This Phase 2 report (following a Phase 1 study of 54 schools) is based on information gathered from 10 schools that were selected as among the more effective in the state at retaining students in school and graduating them.…

The focus of this curriculum is on prevention of spinal cord injury (SCI) and traumatic brain injury (TBI). The program is aimed at young children because it is during the early years that behavioral patterns are formed which become increasingly more difficult to modify as the child enters adolescence. The curriculum is based on principles of…

The focus of this curriculum is on prevention of spinal cord injury (SCI) and traumatic brain injury (TBI). The program is aimed at children because it is early in life that behavioral patterns are formed which become increasingly more difficult to modify as the child enters adolescence. The curriculum is based on principles of child development,…

Portfolio evaluation process promotes thinking while it minimizes multiple-choice mentality. Some educators find that reviewing with the students what they learned, with consideration for the structure of knowledge, provides self-confidence for the pupils' next try. They need self-confidence to critique each other's work, before the teacher…

Noting that all Americans are stakeholders in the quest to prevent violence in the critical early years, this Digest focuses on preventing violence in children's lives and suggests ways caregivers, parents, and teachers can reduce the damaging effects of violence. Even before a child is born, violence can have a profound effect upon its life.…

This book reviews present knowledge about suicidal behavior in American Indians, prevention efforts in Native communities, and recommendations for understanding suicidal behavior and developing suicide prevention efforts. Data from Canadian aboriginal groups is also included. Chapter 1 explains why suicide in American Indians is of concern to…

This curriculum provides the basic information everyone needs to avoid HIV infection, but was specifically designed for Latino farmworker students in grades 6-7. The student materials are written in Spanish and English and may be used with older student or young adults, or in English-as-a-second-language courses. An introduction provides…

Providing information on the important role that the arts and humanities can play in prevention efforts, this document offers several activities that draw upon the arts and humanities to increase young people's resiliency. Resiliency refers to children's ability to successfully adapt and develop in healthy ways, despite exposure to risk and…

Project YES! (Yes to Education and Skills) is a gang violence and drug prevention curriculum created in part from funding from the California Governor's Office of Criminal Justice Planning. It has been implemented in California schools since 1991, and was introduced to the Austin Independent School District (AISD) in 1998. The program, which is…

A disproportionate number of Hispanic/LEP students are leaving school in the ninth grade. Although dropout programs exist in Florida county school districts, none addressed the special language and culture difficulties, often coupled with socioeconomic problems, of these students. This practicum was designed to reduce the number of Hispanic/LEP…