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[Executive Summary]Education Reforms and Students At Risk - October 1996
Schools and Students at Risk: Context and Framework for Positive Change
Edited by Robert J. Rossi (336 pages). This book is organized into four parts. Part I, "Context and History of Reform Efforts," offers a distinctive consideration of the range of factors that put children and youth at risk of educational failure. It also provides a comprehensive review of educational responses to the problems of at-risk youth; Part II, "Culture and Cultural Conflict in School," describes the dangers, for students, of a system that fails to recognize and appreciate their distinctive abilities to learn and includes chapters that focus specifically on the cultural conflicts and historical experiences of American Indian, Hispanic, and African-American children and youth in schools; Part III, "Reforms in Process: From the School to the System," provides a review of the latest reform efforts at the school, district, and state levels; and Part IV, "Frameworks for Change," offers new models and analyses based on the most current information about the role of schools and how they may best serve students who are at risk (New York: Teachers College Press, 1994).
Educational Reforms and Students at Risk: A Review of the Current State of the Art
Edited by Alesia Montgomery and Robert J. Rossi (158 pages). This book is divided into three sections: "Becoming at Risk of Failure in America's Schools," which integrates research on students at risk into a conceptual framework for addressing the societal, home, and school-related factors that influence academic success; "Rising to the Challenge: Emerging Strategies for Educating Students at Risk," which analyzes both traditional and innovative school responses to the challenge of educating students at risk; and "Barriers and Pathways to Meaningful Reforms: The Need for High Reliability Organizational Structures," which examines the obstacles to reform implementation and suggests steps toward developing school organizational structures that may help ensure higher student success rates (Washington, D. C.: OERI, 1994).
Proceedings of the 1992 National Conference on Educational Reforms and at-Risk Students
Prepared by Pamela Vergun (67 pages). This volume contains three sections corresponding to the three conference sessions: "Building On and Integrating Cultural Diversity"; "Encouraging School Effectiveness and Student Persistence"; and "Barriers and Incentives to Implementing Reforms" In each session, leading experts in the field addressed and presented various issues and ideas. Summaries of small-group discussions on a variety of topics are presented. A special section contains the keynote address given by the Superintendent of the San Francisco Unified School District, Dr. Waldemar (Bill) Rojas (Palo Alto, CA: American Institutes for Research, 1992).
Articles and Commissioned Papers
"What We Must Do for Students Placed At Risk"
This article by Robert J. Rossi and Samuel C. Stringfield presents findings and specific recommendations related to implementing school reforms for students at risk (Phi Delta Kappan, September 1995).
[The following 10 papers commissioned by this project are available from ERIC/CUE, Box 40, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, telephone (800) 601-4868.]
Chart(er)ing Urban School Reform Philadelphia Style
By Michelle Fine. The author relates experiences and accomplishments of efforts made to create more intimate and more challenging learning environments in urban secondary schools (47 pages). ERIC Reference No. UD 029 423.
Chicago School Reform: A Response to Unmet Needs of "at-Risk" Students
By G. Alfred Hess, Jr. Recounted are the challenges and early returns from the move to reform governance and administrative practices in all Chicago schools, thereby providing additional insights into the interplay of political and systemic frames of reference (36 pages). ERIC Reference No. ED 364 611.
Children At Risk in America's Rural Schools: Economic and Cultural Dimensions
By Alan J. DeYoung. A description of the historical, demographic, and social and economic trends that have shaped the schools and systems in our rural areas where the majority of poor children and youth attend school. The author takes us inside one system to examine how school staff and the community at large are attempting to improve student experiences (74 pages). ERIC Reference No. ED 362 342.
Educational Reform and American Indian Cultures
By Grayson Noley. Cultural conflicts occur daily in school settings for American Indian children and youth. Certain initiatives and current programs are described that are rooted in the American Indian tradition and history of education, and, if continued and nurtured, may finally address the learning needs of American Indians (46 pages). ERIC Reference No. ED 362 341.
Educational Reforms for At Risk Students
By Joseph C. Grannis. Provided is an overview of a citywide dropout prevention initiative, noting how the dynamics of implementation and evaluation may work in contexts that are also politically charged (90 pages). ERIC Reference No. ED 360 428.
Educational Reforms for Students At Risk: Cultural Dissonance as a Risk Factor in the Development of Students
By Edmond W. Gordon and Constance Yowell. Dissonance between student and school cultures negatively affects the levels of individual achievement and general development that are attained (30 pages). ERIC Reference No. ED 366 696.
Keeping High-Risk Chicano Students in School: Lessons from a Los Angeles Middle School Dropout Prevention Program
By Russell W. Rumberger and Katherine Larson. A description of a one-school project aimed at promoting learning and retention among Hispanic middle school students is presented (55 pages). ERIC Reference No. RC 019 290.
Look Me in the Eye: A Hispanic Cultural Perspective on School Reform
By Rafael Valdivieso and Siobhan Nicolau. Cultural conflicts occur daily in school settings for Hispanic children and youth. This paper reviews the histories of the various Hispanic groups in the United States and concludes by presenting a list of needs that must be addressed in any education reform program for the members of these groups (47 pages). ERIC Reference No. ED 362 342.
Reformulating Educational Reform: Toward the Proactive Schooling of African-American Children
By A. Wade Boykin. The cultural conflicts that occur daily in school settings for African-American children and youth are described. Dr. Boykin urges that schools adopt a "talent development" approach, based on a deep-structure perspective of cultural diversity (89 pages). ERIC Reference No. ED 367 725.
Caring is Not Enough: Assessing Community in High Schools
By Alesia Montgomery. This paper describes preliminary results from the first phase of an exploratory study that seeks to define and understand sense of community on high school campuses. These findings, from various teacher, administrator, and student focus groups, have been used to develop tools to assess community and the resources necessary to maintain community in high schools (22 pages). ERIC Reference No. UD 030 440.
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