Efforts to fight drug abuse must occur in the schools, as well as in homes and the community, since schools provide one major influence in transmitting values, standards, and information to children. This digest discusses the extent of drug abuse among youth, why drug abuse occurs, the effects of drug abuse, what schools can do to combat the…

This monograph was written to provide information on which students drop out of school and why, and to examine successful dropout prevention programs. Research is reviewed which has identified characteristics of dropouts and their reasons for leaving school. Other studies are cited which explore characteristics of effective dropout prevention…

The 11 items in this annotated bibliography are entries in the ERIC system concerning studies of school effectiveness and the debate surrounding how much influence schools have over student learning. Several articles included reexamine the 1966 Coleman report, and one compares a more recent Coleman report with the earlier report. A number of…

Questions about the effectiveness of parent programs are addressed in this paper, which is based on the premise that an important step toward improvement is the identification and clarification of assumptions which prompt and sustain specific program structure and operations. Selected major assumptions about the ways in which programs attempt to…

Examines the progress libraries have made in establishing literacy programs and looks at the efforts of several specific library systems. (FL)

There are many ways to assess the effectiveness of school conflict resolution training (CRT) programs. Some methods require extensive resources, but others, conducted by CRT practitioners themselves, also provide useful information. This digest presents a framework for CRT evaluation by practitioners that enables them to reflect productively on…

This digest describes teacher mentoring and its different applications. A list of 10 characteristics and activities inherent in any mentor-protege relationship is provided. A discussion is presented on the ways that mentoring, an essentally informal process, has been formalized in business firms and school systems. In considering the benefits that…

Noting that Reading Recovery appears to be both effective and fairly non-controversial, this digest discusses aspects of the Reading Recovery program. Elements of the Reading Recovery program and a typical Reading Recovery lesson are described; issues of the importance of teacher education and teacher role in those lessons are addressed; the…

Coalition building and school restructuring unfortunately do not always occur together. But the two forces can complement each other and combine their resources and strengths. Coalitions are organizations or groups of individuals who share a commitment to a particular issue. Although coalitions involved in school restructuring may in the long run…

The computer search reprint provides abstracts of 122 references concerned with rationales for and against the Regular Education Initiative. Citations were selected from the ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center) and ECER (Exceptional Children Education Resources) databases. Introductory sections explain: how citations are arranged; what…

Planned mentoring programs, which purposefully link disadvantaged youth with someone older and more experienced, have become a popular means of providing adolescents with adult contacts, counselors, and role models. Mentoring programs vary widely in their objectives, and in the duration, frequency, and intensity of the planned relationship. The…

This digest reviews and summarizes what is known about effective school-wide behavioral management systems. Emphasis in such systems is on consistency throughout the building and across classrooms with the entire staff, both professional and nonprofessional, uniformly implementing common strategies. Common features of school-wide behavioral…

Eleven annotations of studies or summaries of studies that are entered in the ERIC system are presented in this leaflet. All the annotations concern principals' behavior characteristics and institutional programs that are related to school success as measured by student achievement. The studies reviewed agree that exemplary principals share a…

Communities, frequently with government and school assistance, can implement programs that help teenage and young adult males develop into caring and responsible fathers. This digest briefly describes program components shown to be most effective. Effective programs take account of ethnic differences and use culturally sensitive outreach…

This digest summarizes information on incidence in and identification and intervention of potentially suicidal children and youth with disabilities. Estimates suggesting that some categories of exceptional youth have higher suicide rates than the general population are cited. Suicide risk factors and signs that a student is potentially suicidal…