This paper examines several perspectives and their implications for school social work services to prevent and deal with school failure and dropping out. It examines the different reform efforts and factors involved with dropping out of school. Much of this discussion is shaped by the personal general school social work experiences and knowledge…

This paper responds to President Clinton's call for an end to social promotion. The article reports on a study that examined the effects of social promotion on students, looked at alternatives to social promotion, and investigated how teachers in a representative public school district perceive social promotion. Data were gathered from 46…

The Yale Child Study Center's Impact Analysis and Strategies Group conducted a three-year, independent evaluation of the Institute for Student Achievement (ISA), which is a multi-site, school-based intervention program for students placed at risk of failure. The evaluation design triangulated: (1) student outcomes; (2) the level and quality of the…

This paper reviews the extent and consequences of grade retention in elementary and secondary school. The first part of the paper reviews recent proposals for test-based grade promotion and retention. These are based on politically attractive, but scientifically unsupported claims about the benefits of retention, and minority students are more…

Article discusses the remedial learning of reading for the teaching of the English language to those who come to school with deficient verbal skills, and for others who simply want to enjoy a satisfactory life. (Author/RK)

Describes a technique that used ambiguously drawn pictures of scenes depicting various aspects of the reading process to elicit imaginative reactions by fifth-grade boys. Results suggest that the high achieving readers had significantly more positive attitudes toward reading than did low achieving readers. (FL)

This case-study recounts an investigation of a barely literate 12-year-old boy and discusses some of the advantages of computer-assisted instruction for remedial aid--e.g., its impartiality, lack of emotional involvement, and instant and accurate feedback. The results may have implications for the slow undergraduate learner. (EAO)

Recommends reality counseling to help students who identify with failure to take responsibility and achieve success. Defines reality counseling and discusses its principles: get involved, focus on present behavior, help the student evaluate his/her behavior, make a plan for future behavior, encourage student commitment, accept no excuses, and…

A scale assessing teacher beliefs concerning the responsibility for student academic success was developed and validated. The results show a striking difference in male/female teacher responses. Female teachers consistently assumed greater responsibility for the learning outcomes of their students. (JN)

School crime may be a product of the organizational structure of the school. The negative, stigmatizing labeling of students contributes to school crime and produces poor (deviant) career decisions. Attempts to increase success rate of individual students must recognize the school's value systems and the origins of its stereotypes. (Author/GPM)

Explores motivation as a requisite to the educational goal of maximum development of all children's intellectual potential. Considers (1) causal attributions of success and failure and (2) attribution for task choice and involvement, in relation to, respectively, (1) inequality and (2) equality of optimum motivation in schools. (Author/GC)

Argues that child socialization is directed toward the development of instrumental competencies related to imperatives that vary across cultures. Criticizes the use of White middle-class standards in developmental research and proposes a cultural ecological model which studies competence in the context of the cultural imperatives of a given…