This book contains papers from a conference on at-risk youth that focused on building strengths and empowering youth by giving them skills for school and life. Following an introduction titled "Motivational Strategies for Empowering Youth-At-Risk" by Dan Rea and Robert Warkentin, the papers are: (1) "The Role of Learning Environments: Social…

Strategies in this guide recognize that most at-risk students need to be self-directed, and they involve working with students instead of against them. The book contains practical tools for working with discipline-resistant students. The chapters are: (1) "The Problem with Control"; (2) "The Role of Temperament"; (3)…

This study traced the relationships among demographic change, political change, and education in: Atlanta, Georgia; Baltimore, Maryland; Detroit, Michigan; and the District of Columbia. Although each city is different and has experienced periods of enthusiasms for school reform, all four cities are dealing with objective indicators of educational…

Teachers, parents, and older students need to understand the mechanisms that have subverted honest efforts to give working class children in the United States a decent education. This book discusses why this has happened and suggests ways to develop a pedagogy that makes progressive methods, education that empowers, and powerful literacy possible…

This report presents both a framework for understanding positive factors that contribute to the healthy development of young people, termed "developmental assets," and a portrait of 6th-to-12th-grade youth based on that framework. The report analyzes and interprets data from 99,462 youth in 213 communities collected during the 1996-97 school year.…

This book offers practical principles and programs for establishing "youth-adult partnerships" to bridge the generation gap and prepare youth for a future free of unnecessary risk. Following an introduction titled "Diversity as Strength in Partnerships: Collective Responses to Complex Problems" by Robert Warkentin and Dan Rea, the papers are: (1)…

The stories of five young black men growing up in the Roxbury area of Boston (Massachusetts) in the late 1960s and early 1970s illustrate the difficulties and coping required to reach adulthood in the city. The young men were part of the Pathways to Identity project of Harvard University, a longitudinal study that has, since 1966, interviewed 61…

This book describes the design, growth, and replication of New York City's Middle College High School (MCHS). Chapter 1 relates the history of moves to integrate high school and college, the rationale for this reform, and reasons why prior to the 1970s, the movement was confined to very few two-year and independent colleges. Chapter 2 shows how…

This book is written about youth gangs with the aim of educating teachers and administrators, parents, and others who work with youth. The main emphasis is on gang identifiers and positive behavior management strategies and crisis intervention techniques that can be used in schools and the home. Section 1, "Youth Gangs Past and Present," provides…

A young teacher attempted to engage a class of high-risk urban students by introducing them to books about intolerance and ethnic misunderstanding and developing their own awareness of discrimination and social bias through diaries that documented their own thoughts and feelings. Calling themselves the "Freedom Writers," these students arranged…

This autobiographical narrative describes the early life of Luis J. Rodriguez, a journalist and poet who was immersed in the youth gang culture of Los Angeles (California). Framed by the story of the pull of the gang life for the poet's son, it recounts his experiences from his childhood on the United States-Mexico border through his family's…

The research reported in this book develops a theme introduced in a previous work published by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, "Our Children at Risk" (1995), which noted the integration of services as a way to provide more effective services for families and children at risk of school failure. Part 1 of this…

This report assesses the cost effectiveness of several crime prevention strategies that involve early intervention in the lives of people at risk of pursuing a criminal career. Four different approaches are examined: (1) home visits by child care professionals beginning before birth and extending through the first 2 years of life, followed by 4…

The Chicago (Illinois) School Reform Act of 1988 set in motion a chain of reform efforts that have been the subject of considerable study. The plan emphasizes returning control of the schools to parents and the community through school-based management and local school councils. This book reports on studies of the implementation of the reform…

To reduce the number of school dropouts and youth homicides and to change poor social outcomes for children and youth at risk, it is necessary to consider socially imposed risk factors and reconceptualize ways of thinking about risk. Chapters in this collection discuss risk factors and show that schools can become supportive environments that…