This book examines the conditions for learning from the perspective of those students for whom schools are not productive and satisfying settings. Both current and desired characteristics of school environments are examined from the standpoint of their effect on marginal students. Questions probed include how difficulties begin and why individuals…

Proficiency testing, the measurement of what a person can do as a result of learning, is used increasingly in higher education to determine whether students have mastered basic skills or whether they deserve credits for specific courses (which they may not have actually taken). The motivation for proficiency testing stems from general…