Public schools in the United States are facing a growing literacy crisis. Approximately a quarter of the population of 12th-grade students are still reading below basic levels, which means that they are barely able to comprehend at a literal level, make interpretations, identify relevant information, make simple inferences, and recognize and…

Although the decade of the 1990s witnessed a decline in adult crime and violence rates in California and the United States in general, juvenile crime and violence remained a significant problem. In California, juvenile assault arrests remained at 12.5 per one hundred thousand between 1994 and 1999; adult arrest rates for the same crime declined…

Does involvement by nonresident fathers affect adolescents' propensity to remain in school? If so, is some involvement necessarily better than none, and are changes in involvement with time associated with changes in the odds of school failure? What aspects of involvement matter the most? This study uses data from the National Longitudinal Study…

115 Italian and French teachers of high school and junior high school participated in a study aimed at investigating the impact of causal attribution on judgments of responsibility in case of academic failure of their pupils. Results support the attribution theory as conceptualized by Weiner (1986, 1995) and confirm the predictive utility of the…

Australian higher education has undergone radical change aimed transforming universities into commercial enterprises less dependent on public funding. Despite some significant successes, including dramatic increases in the numbers of domestic and international students, decreased Commonwealth subsidies, and more private sector finance, there are…

Describes an applied training study investigating the differential effect of two instructional methods on the reading performance of British primary school children with reading difficulties. Explains that children ages 7 to 10 (n=65) were separated into two groups: (1) based on different types of phonological awareness instruction, and (2) a…

This paper proposes a strategic federal investment of $3 billion in the relatively small number of social interventions (i.e., programs, practices, strategies) shown in scientifically-rigorous studies to produce sizeable, sustained improvement in the lives of children and youth. Careful analyses show that the benefits of these interventions in…

A dynamic cascade model of development of serious adolescent violence was proposed and tested through prospective inquiry with 754 children (50% male; 43% African American) from 27 schools at 4 geographic sites followed annually from kindergarten through Grade 11 (ages 5-18). Self, parent, teacher, peer, observer, and administrative reports…

This newsletter reports the results of a study that explored the relationship between the organizational culture of secondary schools and students' progress, that is success, failure, and dropout. Three secondary schools were examined in the study, and the results showed that the organizational culture of schools is a useful concept for…

A study determined classroom teachers' opinions of causal factors of reading failure and reported their attitudes on the major issues in reading instruction as suggested in current research. A representative sample of 100 elementary classroom teachers from School District #299 in the Chicago, Illinois area were sent the Ross Reading Survey. A…

Which comes first: achievement or self-esteem? This question is at the heart of an important educational controversy. Traditionally, public schools thought that students' satisfaction followed on the heels of academic success. In other words, children who performed well in class consequently felt good about themselves. But more recent educational…

Research-based reading instruction could reduce recidivism and increase employment opportunity for incarcerated juvenile offenders. Reviews of the research literature provide ample evidence of the link between academic failure, delinquency, and reading failure. A re-examination of the research literature and interviews with reading instructors…

Intervention assistance teams (IATs) were implemented in selected Ohio rural schools to provide early intervention for students experiencing academic failure and provide consultation services for the referring teacher. This study surveyed 119 chairpersons of IATs from 53 randomly selected school districts representing urban, suburban, and rural…

This study uses survival analysis to investigate when maltreated children may become at risk in their school performance. While past research captures the average effect of maltreatment on academic achievement, it has not addressed how the effect is distributed across time. Using a sample of 330 maltreated and 330 non-maltreated children,…

Fundamental changes in the family unit have led to ineffective and inadequate parenting, and to increasing isolation among families, placing family members at risk for such social problems as child abuse/neglect and school failure. To prevent and treat these problems, parents need knowledge of child development and tools for responding…