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Essay on Programs for at Risk Population
The question of what it means to be "at risk" is controversial. When children do not succeed in school, educators and others disagree about who or what is to blame. Because learning is a process that takes place both inside and outside school, an ecological approach offers a working description of the term at risk. In this view, inadequacies in any arena of life--the school, the home, or the community--can contribute to academic failure when not compensated for in another arena. Why is there a need to focus especially on at-risk students? The personal, economic, and social costs of academic underachievement are high and growing. Each year, increasing numbers of students enter school with circumstances in their lives that schools are ill prepared to accommodate. Yet from this academically and culturally diverse population must come the next generation of scientists, engineers, and other skilled professionals.
Traditionally, schools have responded to student diversity and poor academic performance with approaches such as ability grouping, grade retention, special education, and pull-out programs--in which students are removed from their regular classrooms and offered remedial instruction in particular subjects (Letgers, McDill, & McPartland, 1993). After 30 years of practice, however, researchers and educators (e.g., Slavin, 1988; Oakes, 1985) now believe these approaches may actually reduce student engagement and learning opportunities while stigmatizing students. (For a summary of the research, see Compensatory Education: Traditional Responses and Current Tensions.") Instead, the most promising alternative approaches focus on student assets (including their backgrounds and prior experiences) varied teaching strategies, and meaningful learning in collaborative settings. Also of critical importance to each child's success is the school's emphasis on high expectations for all students.
Today, schools are encouraging the development of thinking skills in remedial programs. They also are embracing school-wide restructuring programs and heterogenous grouping as alternatives to pullout programs. Many of these new programs and practices have proven themselves in the classroom.......
