Data indicate that absolute summer achievement decline is not common. Relative decline, where low achievers do not keep pace over the summer with their peers, is common. Finally, attendance at summer school appears to have no strong ameliorative effect on achievement, either short-term or longer-term. (Author/MLF)

According to the American Institute for Research at Palo Alto, California, Apparently, as the unit of analysis is narrowed from the nation as a whole to states and then to local projects, more signs of positive impact on participating children can be identified.'' (Author)

Compensatory Education at its best is merely iodine being used to cure cancer. The problems of America's social, political, and educational systems are far too mammoth to be placated by this feeble effort. (Author)

Author is New York State's Commissioner of Education. (CB)

School districts should be allowed to dispense with labeling children as disadvantaged and to use the Title I support they receive in schools that have a high proportion of children from poor families. (Author/MLF)

Current Chapter 1 remedial and compensatory education programs may not be worth the substantial funds being poured into them. To address shortcomings, such programs should be upgraded, reconceptualized as educational (not funding) programs, and fully integrated into the total school program. Includes 14 references. (MLH)

The main implication seems to be that the national government should take care. If it wants to solve social problems at the level of the individual, the Follow Through experience offers no encouragement that it can be done through federally directed curricular reform. (Author)

A study conducted in Utah shows that ability grouping is harmful to remedial students. Findings from a comparison of mathematics gains for three groups--remedial, average, and accelerated--showed that remedial students learn more in advanced mathematics programs than in those designed for them. (TE)

Two rebuttals to William Cooley's criticisms of Title I programs in the January 1981 issue of "Educational Leadership" claim he incorrectly interpreted the data on the effectiveness of the programs. Cooley responds. (MLF)

By providing immediate intensive interventions when learning problems occur, the Success for All program has improved the achievement of students at an innercity Baltimore elementary school. (TE)

Examines the Abt Associates, Inc. findings on the effectiveness of Project Follow Through and disputes the report's conclusion that so-called "basic skills" approaches to the schooling of poor children are superior to other methods. (Author)

After installing a Computer Assisted Instruction system, officials in Escambia County, Florida, are decreasing the high dropout rate and giving at-risk students the skills to survive in the work world. (Author/TE)

Project AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) is a four-year elective high school program that prepares underachieving, disadvantaged students to attend college. The program is now implemented in 58 secondary schools in San Diego County, California. (TE)

Reviews research on instructional practices that help at-risk students. The programs reviewed fall into three general categories: prevention programs at the primary level, classroom change programs, and supplementary/remedial programs. Lists general features that characterize these programs. (TE)