Effective Instructional Practices for Students Placed at Risk of Academic Failure

Nearly 25% of the children in the United States live in poverty, and their alarming family circumstances make them the most imperiled group of students placed at risk of failure. Most of these children of poverty are minorities who live in urban settings where there are high levels of crime, drug abuse, broken families, teenage pregnancy, and juvenile delinquency. The deleterious conditions that promote underachievement, student and teacher alienation, and high dropout rates also are prevalent in the schools these children attend. The federal government appropriates nearly $8 billion each year for Title I programs designed to assist economically disadvantaged children (Citizens’ Commission on Civil Rights, 1998). After nearly three decades of continual operation, however, the Title I program is criticized increasingly as a fragmented, uncoordinated, and ineffective program (Pugach, 1995; Wang, Reynolds, & Walberg, 1995).