School staff can use information on risk factors to identify student needs and assess the ability of the school to address these needs. It is also important to identify protective factors that promote successful development or buffer risk factors that might otherwise compromise development. Three key factors that have been identified as fostering…

The Subcommittee on Human Resources and Intergovernmental Relations of the House of Representatives Committee on Government Reform and Oversight met to consider the causes of and solutions to teen pregnancy and the role of community organizations in prevention efforts. Opening remarks by Representative Christopher Shays were followed by statements…

Children at Risk (CAR) was a drug and delinquency prevention program for high-risk adolescents aged 11 to 13 years who lived in narrowly defined, severely distressed neighborhoods in: Austin, Texas; Bridgeport, Connecticut; Memphis, Tennessee; Savannah, Georgia; and Seattle, Washington. CAR delivered integrated services to the 338 young…

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…

Details a qualitative, descriptive study of three participants in the African American Achievers Youth Corps, Inc., a program matching at-risk African American middle school and high school males with adult mentors. These case studies indicate that caring and supportive behaviors of adults can improve the self-esteem and academic achievement of…

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…

The Cornerstone Project was developed to build a strong foundation for urban adolescent student learning through staff development and student leadership development. This report summarizes its implementation and objectives and considers the responses of students and teachers. The program was developed at the Martin Luther King Law and Public…

While studies show that young African Americans tend to use alcohol and drugs at lower rates than their White and Hispanic peers, substance abuse and involvement continue to touch the lives of millions of African American youth. This Substance Abuse Resource Guide for prevention specialists, educators, parents, and others was compiled from a…

Reasons for the disproportionate failure rate of young urban African American males were studied in an ethnographic study of third- and sixth-grade classrooms in a low-income African American community. The multimethod approach involved observing classroom sessions and school activities, interviewing students and teachers, and examining…

The Community Liaison to Urban Education (CLUE) program operates from the Appalachia Educational Laboratory to research, develop, and implement a collaborative parent-community-school (PCS) education model designed to initiate and sustain the involvement of nonadvantaged parents, community leaders, and community organizations in the education of…

The Faculty Alliance for Education in Newark (New Jersey) is a network of faculty from local universities, a community college, and two high schools, all in the city of Newark, dedicated to improving the opportunities for at-risk youth to achieve a college education and an improved quality of life. It is an initiative of the Newark Educational…

Children in foster care are the most educationally at risk population in New York City, and the longstanding failure of the responsible agencies to address the educational needs of foster children in New York City is a problem that has, for the most part, been ignored. This paper reports on a study aimed at creating a database to inform the…

Examines the relative contribution of measures of objective and subjective neighborhood danger and measures of social support from neighbors, teachers, parents, and friends. Findings suggest that adolescents' adaptation is influenced more by the availability of social support, especially from parents, than from their reports and perceptions of…

Describes a pilot mentoring program that involved 19 college students working with preadolescent and adolescent at-risk Hispanic youth in a Texas border city. The program, which consisted of 10 weekly classes in citizenship awareness and community participation and involvement, focused on dropout prevention and preparation for citizenship. (SLD)