The changes observed in the school context demand new practices and impose new challenges to the operational assistants that, due to their relevant role in the educational environment, must be prepared and endowed with knowledge and skills to conduct their profession in a fully useful way. This is only possible through the promotion of their…

The purpose of this study is to describe, analyse and evaluate the successive comprehensive reforms in Spain as a "paradigmatic" example of the emergence, evolution and crisis of the comprehensive school. In the first part, we describe the development of the comprehensive school project (1970-2013), using the image of the life cycle,…

The retention of "at risk" students in secondary schools is a major challenge to inclusive education policy. Students with non-compliant behaviour at this level are typically dealt with by authoritarian and punitive disciplinary systems that frequently lead to exclusion from school. This paper reports on the successful establishment of a…

Secondary school administrators are increasingly finding themselves in the position of implementing Response to Intervention (RTI). This system of providing progressively intensive levels of intervention for the purposes of preventing academic failure and identifying children with learning disability may be useful at the secondary level. However,…

This paper examines "Fresh Start," a New Labour flagship initiative to raise education "standards" in a radical and innovative way. Drawing on a qualitative study of a comprehensive school in England, I argue that the initiative added to the problems faced by the "failing school" and promoted rather traditional ways…

Author concludes that paraprofessionals can be effective in teaching children, and that a participatory educational approach from the bottom up may be much more meaningful than the hierarchical downward oriented bureaucracy. (Author/MB)

Ethnocentric racism is especially evident in American schools. In educational institutions, Black children learn that schools do not like them, do not respond to them, do not appreciate their culture, and do not think they can learn. Research indicates that such attitudes are realistic. For several reasons, schools are ideal places to support and…

This guide presents the Department of Education's strategy for ending social promotion in public schools. It opens with a description of social promotion and the pervasiveness and the consequences of this practice. The volume outlines the high standards that all students should be held to and emphasizes the importance of creating reliable measures…

This booklet, part of a series of reports on "hot topics" in education review the research and conventional wisdom concerning retention and promotion and includes an exploration of alternative practices that can be used to prevent failure and improve a student's chances for successful remediation. The booklet also describes how two…

This report addresses the conditions of at-risk children and builds a case for changing the odds so that they favor such children. The introduction summarizes nearly a decade of education reform efforts related to disadvantaged youth. It underscores the need to intervene early. Four subsequent sections: (1) describe the developmental…