Discussion of student retention at community colleges identifies reasons for student failure and withdrawal, concluding that many students leave school for reasons such as emotional problems, poor motivation, and financial problems over which instructors have no control. Suggests too much emphasis on retaining ill-prepared students detracts from…

Describes the Learning Support Center (LSC), an inclusive program that provides support services to at-risk and marginal high school students. The LSC uses nontraditional staffing (including sources from outside the school), establishes schoolwide ownership via staff involvement, and uses educational instruments such as the Personalized Learning…

Researchers agree that a core linguistic deficit underlies poor reading at all ages; poor readers generally exhibit weaknesses in phonological processing and word-recognition speed and accuracy. Reading intervention grounded in research imparts to older readers the skills missed in primary grades and can bring them to grade level in 1 or 2 years.…

Describes a study designed to measure students' perceptions of remedial mathematics classroom environments and to identify differences between female and male students' perceptions. Indicates that although men and women found the mathematics classroom environment to be a positive one, women held more positive perceptions of the classroom than men.…

Although many parents and educators hesitate to involve children in a regular course of drug therapy, Ritalin often proves beneficial to Attention Deficit Disorder sufferers. Diana, an intelligent, easily distracted middle schooler, was helped by a team approach using evaluation, remediation, behavioral therapy, medication, and a supportive…

Looks at the notion of the democratic public sphere as a useful construct for collaborative practices in portfolio classrooms. Describes the author's efforts to foster democratic participation by situating portfolio talk and assessment within the public space of one developmental writing classroom. Describes conflicts unseen until the end of the…

Describes the Read Naturally (RN) strategy to improve reading fluency that combines reading from a model, repeated readings, and progress-monitoring. Suggests positive results found in data collected from classroom implementations with K-3 remedial and special education students and 6th-grade special education students. (NH)

Across a range of contexts, reductions in education costs and provision of subsidies can boost school participation, often dramatically. Decisions to attend school seem subject to peer effects and time-inconsistent preferences. Merit scholarships, school health programs, and information about returns to education can all cost-effectively spur…

Developmental Education programs are designed to provide assistance to students who are academically under-prepared for college-level coursework. Previous issues of "Data Notes" compared the outcomes of developmental students completing all of their required developmental courses to those not requiring developmental education. Using data…

Remediation is the most common policy designed to prepare students academically and socially during their early stages of college. But despite its profound importance and its significant costs, there is very little rigorous research analyzing its effectiveness. The goal of this paper is to provide a conceptual framework for evaluation of remedial…

Remediation in postsecondary education continues to be an issue that is hotly debated by institutional leaders and state policymakers. The National Center for Education Statistics [The National Center for Education Statistics. (2003). "Remedial education at higher education institutions in fall 2000. PEQIS". Washington, D.C.: U.S.…

Despite the repeated adage that "no two LD (learning disabled) students are alike, it is not only possible but important to focus on the most common errors of LD college writers in order to learn how best to serve these students. There are in fact two main categories of these students: severely learning disabled and classically learning…

When teaching remedial writing in a correctional facility, a teacher may carry assumptions shaped by formal education that do not always translate to a prison context. These include the idea that the classroom will provide a sphere of intellectual activity, immune from heavy-handed institutional intrusions; that students will want to get to know…

The goals for a Chapter 1 program are to help children succeed in the regular program, attain grade level proficiency, and improve achievement. Students have attained these goals in both pull-out and in-class programs. Most research suggests that the model used is not as important as the degree of coordination between the Chapter 1 and the regular…

Suggesting that captioned television is a powerful motivator for teaching reading comprehension, this fastback offers a procedure for teaching with captioned television, including taping captioned programs off the air. The fastback notes that captioned television is useful in intermediate and advanced English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) programs,…