This article conceptualizes the crucial social and developmental features impacting Mexican-descent youth and adolescents in low-income communities in southern California. All youth in these neighborhoods must confront and come to grips with the many environmental, socioeconomic, racial, and cultural forces they confront. However, it is the…

The lack of sufficient literacy skills is a major factor contributing to poor performance in high school and post-secondary education. Many students, particularly those in urban schools, lack the foundational literacy skills necessary to read and comprehend the academic texts appropriate for high school and beyond. This brief provides a synthesis…

Describes Network in the Schools (NIS), a project to enhance teens' academic achievement and self-esteem, which uses small group classroom discussions regarding self-affirmation, social concerns, self-improvement, and reflection, and meetings for group sharing and self-expression. Presents findings that the program results in enhanced parent…

Investigating variables associated with the school success and educational resilience of urban youth of color should be a high priority because of the persistent achievement gap in the United States. The current study examined individual and peer factors' relation to the school engagement of 132 seventh- and eighth-grade students from a diverse…

Results of analyzing variables impacting the behavior of four ninth-grade poor-achieving tutors and 20 seventh-grade tutees with reading difficulties found that giving tutor points for reinforcing tutee responses was the most important component of the tutoring package for both tutors and tutees. (Author/JDD)

This study analyzes the effects on 14- and 15-year-old black teenage girls of entering and participating in a specially designed work program. The girls were provided with supports in their work settings, well-defined tasks, supervisors as well as regularly scheduled peer interaction groups led by a young black woman considered to be an…

Investigated factors associated with academic success and coping of low-income, urban, minority adolescents transitioning from 8th to 9th grade. Interviews with high- and low-performing students indicated that the transition brought challenges related to school, friends, and family. High-performing students coped more actively and had a wider…

Currently there is a strong movement to make schools more effective by raising the quality of instruction, program design and organizational management. This paper reviews recent research in adolescent development as a major focus for determining the success or failure of specific practices in secondary schools. Factors of school effectiveness are…

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)