Policy makers are especially concerned about persistently high dropout rates among U.S. Latinos, the largest minority population in the United States. This study used a national longitudinal database to show that the behavioral and social aspects of schooling are dynamically linked in the process of school completion and dropout among Mexican…

Multinomial stepwise logistic regression analyses were used to establish the most robust set of risk factors that would best predict low basic reading skills (i.e., a standard score less than 85 on the Woodcock Reading Mastery Test-Revised Basic Reading Skills cluster) of kindergarten and first-grade children at risk for emotional and behavioral…

The current study investigated whether a 5-month, adult mentoring intervention delivered by school personnel could enhance the school engagement of ninth grade urban minority adolescents. Compared to 20 at-risk students who did not receive an intervention, 20 at-risk students who were randomly assigned to mentoring exhibited significantly less…

This study examines interpersonal competence configurations in relation to students' concurrent behavior problems and social risks for later adjustment difficulties. Participants are 648 (345 girls, 303 boys) fourth-grade students (65% White, 6.9% African American, 19.5% Hispanic, 4.6% Asian, and 4.0% Other) from the suburbs of a major Midwestern…

The Universal High School Program (UHS) is a pilot secondary program in the St. Vrain Valley School District in Longmont, Colorado. It is designed to address the needs of a small niche educational group: highly able students who do not fit well into the mainstream of the educational system. These students are at risk educationally, but not for the…

Lessons learned from years of applied research in the area of student engagement, dropout prevention and school completion are offered. This article begins with a summary of theoretical constructs that guided the development of Check & Connect and continues with descriptions of multiple applications of this targeted intervention. The roles of key…

Most junior syndicate teachers have concerns about the speech clarity of some of the children in their class. It is difficult for teachers to know whether to refer such students for speech assessments by their speech-language therapist. This article outlines a project which gathered New Zealand normative data for a test of articulation. A summary…

Migrant children are considered one of the most at-risk populations in the United States. They face multiple obstacles of poverty, poor health, mobility, and limited English proficiency, which contributes to the difficulties that migrant children may encounter in the educational system. Limited research has been conducted regarding migrant…

To identify characteristics predicting the effective implementation of after-school programs, in-depth interviews were conducted at five sites randomly selected from a subset of 16 ACE after-school sites serving high risk youth in a southwestern city. Qualitative data from structured in-depth interviews, follow-up telephone conversations with…

After twenty-three years of being a Teaching Artist, there is one residency that has continually haunted the author. It was an experience that reinforced the value of her work, validated the power of the arts in the classroom, and provoked deep personal reflection. The residency took place in 1999 at Park Street Elementary in a large Southern…

A two-year ethnographic observation of an inner-city high school in Los Angeles, USA, indicated that the principal, who was extremely dedicated to at-risk students and possessed a unique style of mentoring, played a major role in students academic achievement. We--the principal and the researcher who observed the school--inquired about the…

This report presents the first post-intervention impacts of the Quantum Opportunity Program (QOP) demonstration. From July 1995 through September 2001, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) and the Ford Foundation (Ford) operated a demonstration of QOP designed to help at-risk high-school-age youth graduate from high school and enroll in…

This Report Card is the first full assessment of the educational performance as a state, from birth through higher education. It compares performance to other states, looks at recent trends, and shows whether Illinois is meeting their obligations to all students or just a limited few. The scope of the report runs from birth through higher…

Now that all 50 states and the District of Columbia are building statewide longitudinal data systems, the next step is to ensure that the information in these systems is used to improve student learning. The Data Quality Campaign (DQC) has identified 10 actions that states can take to ensure that the right data are available and accessible and…

Responding to disruptive or troubled pupils with emotional and behavioural difficulties (EBD) remains a highly topical issue. The challenges these children present relate to wider issues of continuing political concern: the perceived declining discipline in schools; school and social exclusion; the limits to inclusion for children with special…