This article attempts to bridge a perceived gap between legal education and education theory as well as the gap between academic counseling and independent learning by examining law school academic support programs. The article argues that a multidisciplinary analysis provides a helpful basis for evaluating academic support programs that address…

The Phi Delta Kappa Study of Students At Risk assessed who is at risk, what puts students at risk, what schools are doing to help those students, and how effective these efforts are. Data were provided on at-risk students in 85 U.S. and Canadian communities by teachers who knew each student best and had access to a student's school records. This…

This study examined the relationship of ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status (SES), age, and self-perceived academic achievement to students' academic motivational orientations. Groups of 333 American students in Wisconsin and 375 Chinese students in Hong Kong in grades 8, 10, and 12 completed questionnaires that gathered demographic…

A lack of education is a major cause of poverty among many Kentucky citizens. In 1986, Kentucky's dropout rate was the second highest of the 50 states. That same year, Kentucky established the Parent and Child Education (PACE) Program in an effort to combat the problems of insufficient education and poverty that tend to be perpetuated from…

The United States Education Department recognizes projects that effectively meet the special needs of educationally deprived students. In 1992, the Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Chapter 1 preschool program earned national validation as an "unusually successful" compensatory education program. The program has served as a statewide model, and…

Recognizing that all learning must on some level be voluntary, the author draws on his experiences as an educator to explore not-learning as distinct from failure. The refusal to learn can be a reaction to the conditions of schooling, which many learners, particularly those from poor and disadvantaged backgrounds, find irrelevant at best or…

This book originally written in 1978, houses a pessimistic view of American culture that the author sees no reason to modify. The central argument is that the national faith in individual initiative and free opportunity has become a breeding ground for guilt about our own limited successes and prejudice against all who exhibit signs of failure.…

Factors associated with an unusually high rate of failure on the July 1991 National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN) were analyzed for nursing students at Angelo State University in San Angelo (Texas). Of the 111 nursing degree recipients who took the examination for the first time in July 1991, 18 (16.2%) failed.…

If an institution's goal is cultural diversity, the institutional response must go beyond a core curriculum that transmits culture or a multicultural curriculum which transforms culture, and embrace a curriculum which enhances individual differences. The core curriculum has an unabashed European cultural bias and requires assimilation to the…

Sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students (N=301) from a rural county in Tennessee (Iris County is a pseudonym) completed a Rural School Success Inventory (RSSI) and the Learning Styles Inventory (LSI). The study explored differences between low Socioeconomic Status (SES) students and middle/high SES students. The RSSI provided information about…

The causes and types of student underachievement and suggestions for remedying the problem are discussed. Because the reasons for underachievement are numerous, different for individuals, and often overlapping, solutions must consider the unique context. Recommendations include increasing students' self-esteem; increasing community involvement;…

This research explored cognitive-motivational patterns of learning-disabled and nondisabled adolescents by employing the theoretical model of C. S. Dweck, which posits that a "learning goal" orients students toward the development of competence, whereas a "performance goal" orients students toward the documentation of competence, and that these…

To better understand the effect of student background, work load, and attitudes on performance in intermediate algebra, a study was conducted in summer 1990 among students at a central Texas community college using pre- and post-course questionnaires completed by 124 of 157 students in 8 sections of intermediate algebra. Respondents were…

To extend the analysis of mathematics as the "critical filter" into actual college experience, the influence of high school and college mathematics on choice of majors and progress in the major during college was studied using data from 745 freshmen at Arizona State University. Attention was also directed to an expanded mathematics…

This report presents the findings of a survey ("Programs and Activities Using Technology To Serve Students at Risk of School Failure") of a sampling of large school districts in the United States and Canada, conducted to obtain information on the use of technology to serve students at risk of school failure for the participants in a…