Special Strategies for Educating Disadvantaged Children. Urban and Suburban/Rural. Second Year Report

This volume presents second year findings from a 3-year project that collected case study data on 10 promising strategies for educating disadvantaged children. The study occurred at 25 urban or suburban/rural sites. Participating schools had Chapter 1 programs or were eligible for Chapter 1. The sample included students in grades 1, 3, and 9 who were followed for 3 years. Strategies included Reading Recovery, computer assisted instruction, peer tutoring, extended-day and extended-year projects, schoolwide projects, Success for All projects, Comer School Development projects, Paideia projects, and Re:Learning/Coalition of Essential Schools Projects. Data collection included observations of classroom instruction and student-teacher and student-student interactions, interviews with school-related staff, and surveys of parents, teachers, principals, district coordinators, and students. All students completed standardized tests. Three children in each school were followed throughout their school day to examine what the special strategy and school were like for them. Second year findings included: all 10 of the special strategies had positive impacts on groups of at-risk students; quality of implementation was always critical; and fiscal and other crises had powerful negative impacts on program implementation. An appendix contains writing samples and a scoring guide. (Contains 31 references.) (SM)