"Twelve Together" is a one-year peer support and mentoring program for middle and early high school students that offers weekly after-school discussion groups led by trained volunteer adult facilitators. Each peer discussion group consists of about 12 participants, who are a mix of students at high risk of academic failure and others at…

The problem of school dropouts and at-risk students has many causes. No one cause can be seen clearly as the dominant factor in a child leaving school and the possibility of that student not finishing his high school career. This program addressed the problems of at-risk students with poor social and academic skills. The literature reviewed…

In July and August 1989 the Delaware-Chenango Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) piloted the Summer Telelearning for Academic Renewal (STAR) program, a telecommunications-based program aimed at reducing the potential for at-risk eighth graders to drop out of school. Students were selected for the program by their home schools on the…

A practicum addressed the problem of low self-esteem of at-risk students by developing and implementing a 12-week dropout prevention program for 19 eighth-grade students in urban, middle class school. The program used five basic strategies for raising self-esteem: affective skills training (using role playing, mapping, and brainstorming to help…

This semester-long curriculum is designed to increase the self-esteem, leadership skills, and communication, decision-making, and problem-solving abilities of eighth and ninth grade students who are at risk of dropping out of school. The manual offers procedural suggestions for organizing a Going Places class. Individual sections address…

This study examined the effect of the Nicholls State-Youth Opportunities Unlimited (NS-YOU) program on 30 adolescents aged 14 and 15. The NS-YOU summer program was designed by Nicholls State University to address the dropout problem among adolescents from low income families. This program provided remediation, counseling, and job training to 14-…

An at-risk profile instrument was developed for identification and service delivery for high risk students to identify students in a timely manner so that intervention could occur on a proactive, rather than reactive, basis; and to assist school district personnel to implement, monitor, and modify programmatic and staffing patterns to best meet…

The purpose of this practicum was to effect a substantial improvement in the academic and social profiles of 12 seventh-grade and 6 eighth-grade students with specific learning disabilities who had been targeted as potentially high risk candidates for dropping out of high school. Within a holistically based intervention model, five student…

The status of middle grade students (grades 6, 7, and 8) was studied in the New Orleans (Louisiana) public schools. The district is faced with major challenges in addressing the overall needs of middle grade students and the impact of early retention in grade that has resulted in several overage students. Most sixth graders are in elementary…

This final report and curriculum guide are products of a project conducted to improve existing at-risk programs through cooperation between vocational and academic personnel by coordinating lesson plans. The following project activities are described: (1) a literature review on the diverse needs of at-risk students enrolled in an alternative to…