The Center for Disease Control and Prevention indicates that alcohol use is the third leading preventable cause of death in the United States and results in approximately 79,000 deaths annually. College students are at particular risk of alcohol-related consequences due to their heavy drinking tendencies, with multiple studies indicating over 40%…

The missionary zeal of community colleges in the 1960s is still needed to meet the challenges they still face today: helping underserved and underprepared students succeed, and offering a strong general education curriculum that provides the foundation and framework for later academic and professional success. Even as economic, social, and…

The paper reviews public discourses and research on the safeguarding of other people's children by adults at the neighbourhood level. There is much empirical evidence pointing to the existence of thriving informal communities of support and informal childcare for parents across the social classes. There appears to be less empirical evidence…

Does the country's national security rely on top-quality early childhood education? Yes, say the military leaders of Mission: Readiness, an organization led by retired military commanders that promotes investment in education, child health, and parenting support. Actually, the generals are right, but for all the wrong reasons. The generals' aim is…

Recent trends in education have drawn attention to students at risk of school failure and dropout in the United States. Alternative schools are one method for preventing the severe and long-lasting consequences of underachievement and dropout. Few research studies have sought the opinions and perceptions of the at-risk students who attend…

Poverty, which forms a specific culture and way of life, is a growing issue in the United States. The number of Americans living in poverty is continually increasing. Poverty indicates the extent to which an individual does without resources. Resources can include financial, emotional, mental, spiritual, and physical resources as well as support…

For decades, the cost of serving college students, from community colleges to Ivy League institutions, has been a barrier that has blocked access for many who want an education. With a recent massification effort aimed at producing more college graduates for the workplace, the enrollment numbers have increased and student debt load has become a…

It is well recognized that for people living with a chronic disease, the largest impact on preserved health may come from persons other than medical professionals. This may be especially true for children for whom the actions of parents and school professionals have significant importance. Sickle cell disease (SCD) is one such disease. Although…

The present investigation addresses the question of whether certain factors can protect high-achieving students at risk for being labeled a nerd against devaluation. In 2 studies, 125 and 317 students from Grade 8 evaluated vignettes describing average students and students who were called "nerds." Results indicate that being modest…

Using Astin's I-E-O model as a framework, this article explores the effects of a variety of factors on first-year persistence for conditionally-admitted students participating in a learning community at a public land-grant university. Since the learning community began in 2002, program administrators have collected survey, interview, and academic…

More schools than ever are expanding their schedules beyond the traditional limits of six and a half hours a day, 180 days of the year. Schools serving predominantly high-poverty populations make up the vast majority of this emerging movement as they try to overcome the widespread failure of schooling to meet academic goals for high-risk students.…

This article summarizes the findings of a study that examined instruction in early childhood classrooms where teachers participated in high-quality, sustained, and intensive professional development through an Early Childhood Educator Professional Development partnership on literacy practices essential to school success. Comparisons made between…

Accurate identification of at-risk kindergarten and 1st-grade students through early reading screening is an essential element of responsiveness to intervention models of reading instruction. The authors consider predictive validity and classification accuracy of early reading screening assessments with attention to sensitivity and specificity.…

This article explores students at risk of academic non-completion. Schools and school counselors need to target the factors which put students at risk of academic non-completion to reduce the number of adolescents feeling a sense of alienation from school, from educators, and from learning. The construct of student alienation is examined based on…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify how at-risk high school students in an alternative school describe how they best learn and to extrapolate their preferred learning practices to improve teacher pedagogical practices. Design/methodology/approach: The authors used a qualitative case study design to facilitate the first two stages of…