This study contributes a novel perspective on grade retention by empirically examining how classroom composition relates to the standardized-testing performance of grade-retained students in their post-retained years. This evaluation employed a sample of entire cohorts of urban elementary school children in the Philadelphia School District over 6…

Uses event-history analysis to explore whether and how grade retention influenced graduation outcomes for a cohort of 707 youths from an urban school system. Repeating a grade from kindergarten to grade 6 was associated with an increase in the odds of dropping out. Explores the impact of being over age for grade. (SLD)

Examined patterns in the relative risk of course failure and recovery from failure over the first four semesters of high school for students in the Chicago, Illinois, school system, showing how failure rates vary as a function of race, ethnicity, gender, age, and prior performance. Results for 27,612 students show that few recover from failure,…

Explores how schooling serves to perpetuate the social expectations that criminalize urban Latino youth, following a sample of eight junior high school students. Even more than the racism of individual teachers, institutionalized racism stereotypes these students as doomed to fail or destined to be gang members. (SLD)

Studied 21 students labeled "at risk" by their schools who participated in an after-school compensatory program. These students partially accepted, and ultimately rejected, the status-attainment ideology promulgated within the program. Suggests ways in which adults could better represent the interests of these students. (SLD)

A culturally and economically diverse group of 361 urban seventh graders rated their perceptions for liking and difficulty of core academic subjects and their attributions for mathematics test performance. Results suggest that boys and girls are not significantly different in their perceptions and in their attributions for lack of success. (SLD)

The Phi Delta Kappa Study of Students At Risk assessed who is at risk, what puts students at risk, what schools are doing to help those students, and how effective these efforts are. Data were collected about 21,706 students, 9,652 teachers, and 276 principals; 65 case studies were completed; and holding power data about 27,250 students in 95 high…

This paper evaluates the Required Academic Proficiency tutorial program, implemented in the Houston (Texas) Independent School District (HISD) to reduce academic failure. Students are eligible for the program if they are failing (scoring lower than 70 on a scale of 100). A total of 14,748 students, eligible and non-eligible, attended the tutorials…

Studied characteristics distinguishing successful and failing Hispanic innercity high school students, using 24 high dropout-risk and 24 low dropout-risk Hispanic tenth graders (22 males and 26 females). When compared to high-risk counterparts, low-risk students were more satisfied with their school and maintained social groups predominantly free…

This study of students at risk was conducted to determine who is at risk, what puts students at risk, what schools are doing to help those students, and how effective these efforts are. Data were collected on about 49,000 students and almost 10,000 teachers in over 275 schools in 85 U.S. communities, and researchers conducted case studies of 65…