Adolescents have no prepared, appreciated, approved place in society, so they tackle identity formation and development of self-worth and self-efficacy on their own. Society must change its view that youth are troubled or harmful and instead provide opportunities for meaningful roles for adolescents, particularly those without many years of formal…

This report provided the U.S. District Court hearing the Liddell case about school desegregation in St. Louis (Missouri) in 1996 with a review of research on promising programs, reform designs, and school components that have been found to support or enhance achievement among historically disadvantaged students. Specific steps are proposed to…

The chapters of this report provide a starting point for the development of authentic prevention strategies for use in the African-American community, specifically for high risk youth. It is neither a "how to" manual nor a mandate for specific program details, but it does highlight the key components of alcohol and other drug abuse…

This is a summary of work done as part of a multiyear series of professional development engagements between staff in an urban school district and staff of the Urban Education Project at Research for Better Schools. The content section of this report describes the Urban Learner Framework (ULF), a model of the urban learner synthesized from…

Despite the critical failure of many urban schools to educate poor children and children of color, there are examples of schools and teachers who help students meet challenging academic standards in a supportive, culturally responsive, and empowering context. This paper represents one such success story of a teacher's efforts to nurture his…

Mentoring is being embraced by many schools as a way to fill gaps in the lives of children classified as "at-risk." Several lines of research indicate that mentoring programs encouraging positive adult relationships with these students provide the support needed to help these children reach their full potential. Through a collaborative…

Many of today's children fear school because of violence. Some children do not feel safe going to school, so they stay home. Others are growing up in dysfunctional families, and are not prepared for school or able to perform well at school. Parental help, which is needed at school when problems arise, may be lacking for these children. Among the…

This paper describes the Chicago School Reform Act of 1988 (CSRA); outlines work of the Chicago Panel on Public School Policy and Finance; and traces the Chicago School Reform (Illinois) movement, an effort to address more adequately the previously unmet needs of "at-risk" children by creating a systemic opportunity for schools to…

This publication provides a variety of information on prevention and intervention programs for rural and urban children and adolescents. Drawing from a rural sociological perspective, the introductory paper defines "rural," discusses rural-urban economic and social differences, and lists indicators of risk for rural youth. It discusses the extent…

This curriculum resource book provides activities in affective education which are designed to foster the strengthening of self-esteem and intrapersonal and interpersonal skills. The major goal of the program is to foster a life style which excludes substance abuse. It is also asserted that skills associated with the affective domain play a…

Reducing absences is the most readily available strategy that high schools have for reducing the number of dropouts. A sample of approximately 2,000 students who entered three Oregon urban high schools in the Fall of 1983 or 1984 was studied in order to establish criteria for identifying students who were at-risk of not graduating. The group was…

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…

To assist educators in fostering resilience among children, this paper offers information that will help transform the picture of children at risk to a vision of educationally resilient students who can overcome obstacles. Researchers have offered many definitions of resilience, but all have stressed the capacity of the individual to overcome…

Using cross-sectional data from a cohort of 8th-grade, urban, black youth, several latent-variable structural equation models were tested. Findings underscore the continued primacy of deviance in predicting drug use and the necessity of incorporating affective influences into current cognitive-behavioral intervention strategies for minority youth.…

City Bound, an urban-based Belgian youth program, uses challenging social tasks such as visiting a prison or preparing for a mock job interview to foster individual development and social awareness. Discusses options for mixing elements of Outward Bound, a nature-based learning program, and City Bound, as well as specific adaptations for at-risk…