Although peer leaders have been effectively assisting school staffs since the 1960s, they have recently assumed their most critical role to date. Peer leaders are leading other students through drug prevention curricula, particularly those based on the Special Influence Model (SIM), which seeks to stregthen students' awareness of and resistance to…

School districts across the country are facing increasing numbers of secondary immigrant students who have low level English or native language skills, and in many cases, have had limited formal education in their native countries. These students must learn English, take the required content courses, and catch up to their native-English-speaking…

School counselors must wade through many unconnected lists of interventions to plan the career guidance aspect of their work. Often this impedes their ability to think strategically about their career development efforts. This digest describes an attempt to discover the underlying taxonomic structure of career development interventions that occur…

The effectiveness of many specific drug prevention strategies is not known yet, primarily because of poor program evaluation design. However, evidence has shown that interventions based on the social influence model are effective. Regardless of strategies employed, all prevention programs must start early; involve coordinated efforts with the…

The current 9-month school calendar emerged when 85 percent of Americans were involved in agriculture. Today, only about 3 percent of Americans' livelihoods are tied to the agricultural cycle, and air-conditioning makes it possible for schools to provide comfortable learning environments year-round. Noting the National Education Commission on Time…

The difficult transitions of adolescence combined with the challenges of learning a new language and culture can be overwhelming for immigrant secondary school students. This Digest highlights three ways educators can help students through these critical transitions and provides brief descriptions of three programs that are working to facilitate…

Children's fears can have a self-preserving and motivational quality or have an inhibiting or debilitating effect. Counselors can use three levels of intervention for the prevention of disturbances related to fear and anxiety. The first of these focuses on developmental guidance and counseling activities designed for all children to develop a…

Most teenage fathers care about what happens to their children and need to be given the opportunity to explore their concerns and feelings; however, they do not usually ask for help on their own. The Maximizing a Life Experience (MALE) program focuses on the goals of helping young men to understand their emotional as well as their legal rights and…

Immigrant students in secondary schools face a number of obstacles as they make the transition to schooling in the United States. In addition to adjusting to a new country and school system, they must also learn academic content in a new language. Because these students come from a variety of ethnic, educational, and economic backgrounds,…

The challenge for schools today is to assess the learning style characteristics of each student and to provide teaching and counseling interventions that are compatible with those characteristics. The counselor's role is major--both as a consultant to teachers and as a provider of counseling services. This digest discusses learning style models,…

The integration of animal-assisted therapy into clinical psychology is a growing phenomenon. These "co-therapists" may be of assistance to counselors when working with withdrawn and non-communicative counselees. The presence of an animal has been found to lower anxiety and motivate the counselee's participation in therapy.…

This Digest discusses the increase in the number of immigrant secondary school students who come to the United States with limited education and effective programs for serving this student population. For these students to succeed in school, they must learn to read, write, understand, and speak English, develop academic literacy in English to make…

This ERIC Digest on economics education discusses: (1) the economic literacy of secondary school students; (2) the improvement of the economic curriculum; (3) the improvement of social studies teachers' training and teaching methods; and (4) the implications of improved economics education. A national survey sponsored by the Joint Council on…

High dropout rates among language-minority secondary school students are one indication that many schools are failing to adequately support the needs of these students. The belief that the student dropout rate is due to a lack of proficiency in English often leads educators to overlook the economic, cultural, academic, and personal issues that…

This digest begins with a brief discussion of the current status of the relatively recent phenomenon of online searching in schools. The advantages and disadvantages of online access in this context are then outlined, and some suggestions are offered for school library media specialists who wish to initiate online information retrieval for their…