This ethnographic research examines the sociocultural and educational experiences of migrant youth living in liminality in urban Yangon. Their liminality exemplifies the interplay between poverty, social-choice of dropping out of school and the militant culture of schooling. The research argues that narratives provide comprehensive understandings…

Students who fail algebra are significantly less likely to graduate on time, and algebra failure rates are consistently high in urban districts. Identifying effective credit recovery strategies is critical for getting students back on track. Online courses are now widely used for credit recovery, yet there is no rigorous evidence about the…

Students who fail algebra are significantly less likely to graduate on time, and algebra failure rates are consistently high in urban districts. Identifying effective credit recovery strategies is critical for getting students back on track. Online courses are now widely used for credit recovery, yet there is no rigorous evidence about the…

This paper reports the findings of an eight-month ethnographic study of a small group of at-risk youths in a school of a southern coastal city in China. The process leading to the young students being marginalised by the school system and how they developed a "muddling through" subculture to counteract this marginalisation is revealed.…

A growing body of research suggests educators need to focus on cultivating social and emotional competencies that youth will need to thrive in the new knowledge economy (Durlak, Weissberg, Dymnicki, Taylor, & Schellinger, 2011). For marginalized urban youth, in particular, few have derived programs and interventions to assist with these…

This study contributes a novel perspective on grade retention by empirically examining how classroom composition relates to the standardized-testing performance of grade-retained students in their post-retained years. This evaluation employed a sample of entire cohorts of urban elementary school children in the Philadelphia School District over 6…

This case study explores how a community-based truancy prevention program mediates against absenteeism, truancy, and dropping out and positively transforms the lives of Black and Latina/Latino middle school youth. Findings suggest that community-school partnerships are critical in the quest to combat truancy and the alarming dropout rate among…

Uses event-history analysis to explore whether and how grade retention influenced graduation outcomes for a cohort of 707 youths from an urban school system. Repeating a grade from kindergarten to grade 6 was associated with an increase in the odds of dropping out. Explores the impact of being over age for grade. (SLD)

Examined patterns in the relative risk of course failure and recovery from failure over the first four semesters of high school for students in the Chicago, Illinois, school system, showing how failure rates vary as a function of race, ethnicity, gender, age, and prior performance. Results for 27,612 students show that few recover from failure,…

Explores how schooling serves to perpetuate the social expectations that criminalize urban Latino youth, following a sample of eight junior high school students. Even more than the racism of individual teachers, institutionalized racism stereotypes these students as doomed to fail or destined to be gang members. (SLD)

Studied 21 students labeled "at risk" by their schools who participated in an after-school compensatory program. These students partially accepted, and ultimately rejected, the status-attainment ideology promulgated within the program. Suggests ways in which adults could better represent the interests of these students. (SLD)

A culturally and economically diverse group of 361 urban seventh graders rated their perceptions for liking and difficulty of core academic subjects and their attributions for mathematics test performance. Results suggest that boys and girls are not significantly different in their perceptions and in their attributions for lack of success. (SLD)

Studied characteristics distinguishing successful and failing Hispanic innercity high school students, using 24 high dropout-risk and 24 low dropout-risk Hispanic tenth graders (22 males and 26 females). When compared to high-risk counterparts, low-risk students were more satisfied with their school and maintained social groups predominantly free…

Demonstrates how several factors interact to diminish the chances of academic success for the children of public housing, and suggests how these chances might be improved. A first step is renewed commitment to housing conditions. Reduction of class size is a strong option for increasing achievement for children. (SLD)

Reviews the educational experiences of 106 children and adolescents who appeared in juvenile court either as status offenders or delinquents. Concludes that poor academic performance, low self-esteem, and low school participation may be connected to antisocial and delinquent behavior. (FMW)