In this interim report, Boston's Title I Secondary Reading/Language Arts and Math Programs for 1980-81 (involving a number of pilot projects) are evaluated. Most participants were satisfied with the administration and supervision of the programs, although middle school principals wanted to see more monitoring and evaluation of Title I personnel.…

In this final evaluation report, Boston's Title I Secondary Reading/ Language Arts and Math Programs for 1980-81 are discussed. In both the middle schools and high schools, students on the average met or exceeded standardized test gains at most grade levels for reading /language arts. They did not meet expectations on mastery of performance…

Despite the legal mandate for fulltime school participation between the ages of 6 and 18 and the mandate for high school completion, many youths do not fulfill these expectations and are viewed as dropouts. To investigate the characteristics of seventh and eighth grade students who leave school and the reasons why they do so, school personnel in…

The implications of the open-door admissions policy of the City Colleges of Chicago are discussed by the chancellor. Characteristics of the student population include an increasing average age of students, a majority of night students, and a large proportion of minorities, particularly Blacks and Hispanics. As a public community college system,…

Issues pertaining to the retention of black students, particularly those attending predominantly white colleges and universities, are reviewed, based on a survey of the literature. Three categories of concerns were found in the literature: ways of conceiving black student retention; factors affecting retention; and strategies and remedies to…

Issues surrounding the statewide competency testing of at-risk students are discussed. Sanctions, such as negative evaluations of educational programs associated with such tests, used to fall most heavily on schools and staff, but tests are increasingly becoming prerequisites for promotion and graduation, with increasing impact on students.…

This paper provides summaries of 31 speeches presented at the conference. The theme of this conference was what is new, what is working, and what is happening within the North Central Region and across the country to aid the success of at-risk students. Speeches described specific programs that have been effective. Others covered relevant…

The School District of the City of Saginaw (Michigan) operates a compensatory education delivery system in reading and mathematics consisting of two programs, Elementary and Secondary Academic Achievement (A2). The program was designed to provide direct instruction to 2,613 students in grades 1 through 12. The goal of A2 was to improve the pupils'…

Two longitudinal studies were conducted in 1983 and 1986 to evaluate the effectiveness of the Extended Opportunity Programs and Services (EOP&S) project at Fresno City College (FCC). The EOP&S project is a state-funded program that emphasizes individual tutoring, guidance, learning centers, and other support services in order to increase…

Efforts to solve intergenerational literacy must focus on the family as a unit. However, schools traditionally have a poor track record in dealing with minority/disadvantaged students and involving their parents. Studies have demonstrated the importance of family/community influence on children as well as the cultural and linguistic insensitivity…

The study sought to determine the effects of a summer bridge program on the academic, personal, and social development of underrepresented and low-income students during their first year at the University of California, Los Angeles. The 1988 cohort of students enrolled in the Freshman Summer Program/Transfer Summer Program (FSP/TSP) were tracked…

This report describes and evaluates nine Chapter 2-funded programs in the Austin (Texas) Independent School District. The major positive findings were the following: (1) disciplinary actions have decreased since the implementation of Project ASSIST (Assisting Special Students in Stress Times); (2) extra transportation has allowed some reassigned…

This paper is one component of a collaborative research project being conducted by the National Commission for Employment Policy to explore the education, training, and employment issues that affect at-risk youth, aged 9-15 years old. The paper begins with a description of the dropout problem in the United States, noting that although the dropout…

This report re-examines previously gathered ethnographic data derived from approximately 3,000 hours of interviews with migrants across the United States to determine what factors associated with migration affect children's educational outcomes. The data suggest the existence of a "culture of migrancy," which is manifested in similar…

In a study of cognitive therapy as a strategy for compensatory education, fourteen low-achieving first graders in the Holly Springs Separate School District (Mississippi) were assigned to treatment conditions consisting of a teacher trained in cognitive therapy, an aide, and a small class size. The therapy relied upon a clinical tutorial model…