Background: Research shows that educators can identify half of future high school dropouts as early as Grade 6--and three quarters or more of future dropouts by Grade 9--by monitoring readily available data on attendance, behavior, and course performance. These data have come to be known as the ABCs of dropout prevention, and the measures are some…

The Dynamic Learning Maps™ Alternate Assessment is based on a different set of guiding principles than other assessments. In this article we describe characteristics of the alternate assessment population and we look at the history of alternate assessment and the problems that have been faced in implementing useful assessment programs for students…

There has been a proliferation of high school reform models and interventions over the past few decades aimed at improving the nation's high schools, including increasing graduation requirements, introducing technology to classrooms, grouping ninth-grade students into their own "academies," reorienting the curriculum toward particular…

This chapter recounts the first 3 years of the Student Voice Collaborative (SVC) in New York City, a district supported student leadership initiative that engages high school aged youth in school reform work at school and district levels. Based on his experiences developing and running the SVC, the author identifies nine design and implementation…

The Scarsdale Teachers Institute is an inservice program for faculty run by teachers. This article describes the goverance, collaboration, content, and evaluation of a different type of school improvement. (DF)

Buffalo's Early Childhood Centers, which grew out of court-ordered desegregation plans, are described and evaluated in this article in terms of student achievement, parental involvement, and racial balancing. (IAH)

The concepts of mutual adaptation and mutual accomplishment are used in an analysis of implementation of a delinquency prevention research and development program. Success from the perspective of both the developer and the participant is described. (DF)

The change process surrounding the introduction of an all-day kindergarten program in a small suburban school district is examined in this case study. Implications for adoption and implementation of early childhood programs in other school systems are discussed. (IAH)

There is little research on English language learners (ELLs) in relation to learning disability (LD) assessment and identification. More important, there is a scarcity of research on models and strategies that enhance learning opportunities and outcomes for ELLs prior to an LD diagnosis. We describe in this article an innovative language…