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 Richard Sagor and Jonas Cox
At-Risk Students
An Eye on Education Book
At-Risk Students
Reaching and Teaching Them
Second Edition

Richard Sagor and

Jonas Cox

Second
Edition
an informa business

ISBN 978-1-930556-71-3

,!7IB9D0-ffghbd! An Eye on Education Book

www.routledge.com
 At-Risk
Students:
Reaching
and Teaching Them
Second Edition

Richard Sagor
Jonas Cox
First published 2004 by Eye on Education

Published 2013 by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY, 10017, USA

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

Copyright © 2004 Taylor & Francis

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or

utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.

Notices
No responsibility is assumed by the publisher for any injury and/or damage to
persons or property as a matter of products liability, negligence or otherwise,
or from any use of operation of any methods, products, instructions or ideas
contained in the material herein.

Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own experience and
knowledge in evaluating and using any information, methods, compounds, or
experiments described herein. In using such information or methods they should
be mindful of their own safety and the safety of others, including parties for
whom they have a professional responsibility.

Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and

are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Sagor, Richard
At-risk students : reaching and teaching them / Richard Sagor, Jonas Cox.-- 2nd ed.
p. cm. 4504
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 1-930556-71-3
1. Children with social disabilities-- Education—United States. 2. Problem children--
Education—United States. 3. Motivation in education—United States. 4. Students—United
States-- Psychology. 5. Behavior modification—United States. 6. School management and
organization—United States. I. Cox, Jonas, 1960- II. Title.
LC4091.S24 2004
371.93--dc22
2003064339

ISBN 13: 978-1-930-55668-3 (pbk)

ISBN 13: 978-1-317-92237-7 (ebk)
Editorial and production services provided by Richard H. Adin Freelance Editorial Services
 Also Available from Eye On Education
Dropout Prevention Tools
Franklin P. Schargel
Helping Students Graduate:
A Strategic Approach to Dropout Prevention
Jay Smink and Franklin P. Schargel
Strategies to Help Solve Our School Dropout Problem
Franklin P. Schargel and Jay Smink
Achievement Now!
How to Assure No Child is Left Behind
Dr. Donald J. Fielder
Student Transitions from Middle to High School:
Improving Achievement and Creating a Safer Environment
J. Allen Queen
The Directory of Programs for Students at Risk
Thomas Williams
Constructivist Strategies:
Meeting Standards and Engaging Adolescent Minds
Foote, Vermette, and Battaglia
Beyond Vocational Education: Career Majors, Tech Prep,
Schools Within Schools, Magnet Schools, and Academies
David Pucel
Dealing with Difficult Parents
(And with Parents in Difficult Situations)
Whitaker and Fiore
101 “Answers” for New Teachers and Their Mentors:
Effective Teaching Tips for Daily Classroom Use
Annette Breaux
Motivating and Inspiring Teachers:
The Educational Leader’s Guide for Building Staff Morale
Todd Whitaker, Beth Whitaker, and Dale Lumpa
 Dedicated with deep gratitude
to our father and friend
Dealous Cox
Whose didication to education
has improved the lives of countless children.
 TABLE OF CONTENTS
About the Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . x
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Schools, Schooling, and Learning: Working our way through the
minefields of purpose and function. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Who Are These Kids and Why Do They Behave the Way They Do?. . . . 1
Basic Psychological Needs of At-Risk Youth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
The Essential Feelings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Competence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Belonging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Usefulness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Potency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Optimism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Characteristics of the Discouraged Learner . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Cognitive Dissonance Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Dominant Theories of At-Riskness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Clinical Pathology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
The Medical Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Cultural/Environmental Deficits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Institutional Pathology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Programmatic Implications
of the Two Theoretical Orientations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Interventions Based on the Clinical Pathology (Medical) Model . . . 20
Interventions Based Upon the Clinical Pathology (Environmental
Deficit) Model. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Interventions Based Upon the Institutional Pathology Model . . . . 22
Three Program Prototypes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
2 Issues Regarding Assessment and the Uniqueness of Learners . 27
The Appropriate Role of Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Clear Thinking and Effective Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Teachers in Charge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Students as Key Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Clear and Appropriate Targets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Stopping to Look Down the Road . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
The Uniqueness of Our Learners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Retention of Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

v
vi At-Risk Students: Reaching and Teaching Them

Building Mental Trellises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

The Curriculum and Instruction Battle Fields. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
The Reading and Math Wars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
3 The “C” of CBUPO: Building Student Feelings of Competence . 39
The Importance of Developing One’s Feelings of Competence
at School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Mastery Learning: An Objective View of Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . 41
The Mastery Learning Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
The Four Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Variable 1: Motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Variable 2: Prerequisite Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Variable 3: Quality Instruction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Variable 4: Adequate Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Two Approaches: The Deluxe and the Economy Models . . . . . . . 48
The Deluxe Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
The Economy Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Management and Grading. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
High-Status Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Mastery Learning and the At-Risk Student: A Case Study . . . . . . 69
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
4 Helping Students Develop and Construct Their Own Feelings
of Competence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
A Constructivist View of Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Constructivist Learning Expectations: Subjective View of Knowledge . 74
Developmental Constructivist Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Assimilation and Accommodation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Motivation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
A Case Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Prerequisite Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
High-Quality Instruction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Allowing Enough Time for Learning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Reconciling Developmentalism with High-Stakes Testing . . . . . . 83
A Final Case Study: The Constructing of Scientific Knowledge. . . . 84
Mastery Expectations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Concluding Comment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
5 The B in CBUPO: Helping Students Develop a Sense
of Belonging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
The Hidden Curriculum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Multicultural Education and the Hidden Curriculum . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Extending Membership to All. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Valuing Students by Valuing Their Interests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Table of Contents vii

Learning Styles and Developing Feelings of Belonging . . . . . . . . 99

Gregorc Style Delineator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
An Illustration—High School Physics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Helpful Responses to Learning Style Differences . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Bernice McCarthy’s 4MAT System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Teacher Expectations and Feelings of Belonging . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
The Special Case of Wait Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Intelligence Reconsidered . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Building Belonging with Constructivist Learning. . . . . . . . . . . 121
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
6 Helping Students Build Feelings of Usefulness . . . . . . . . . 127
Problem Based Learning and Student Directed Inquiry . . . . . . . . . 130
Two Dimensions of Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Busy Work vs. “Real World” Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Social Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Cooperative Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Group Investigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Jigsaw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Circles of Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Cooperative Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Characteristics of Informal Cooperative Structures . . . . . . . . 135
Cooperative Team Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Teams Games Tournaments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Student Teams Achievement Divisions (STAD) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Jigsaw II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
An Example of a Hybrid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Accountability and Roles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Community Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Concluding Comment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
7 Developing a Sense of Personal Potency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Choice Theory Explained . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
The Concept of Total Behavior. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Understanding Attribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Goal Setting/Achievement/Celebration Cycle . . . . . . . . . . 160
Affirmations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Teacher as Coach/Student as Worker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Four Essential Elements of Lead Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Four Links to Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Brad: A Case Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
A Final Note . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
8 CBUPO and Effective Discipline: The Two Can Go Together . 173
Our Primary Disciplinary Responsibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
viii At-Risk Students: Reaching and Teaching Them

Maintaining Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

Developing an Internal Locus of Control. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Promoting Appropriate Social Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Causes of Student Misbehavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Motivations Influencing Misbehavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Attention Getting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Power/Revenge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
A Litmus Test for Assessing Discipline Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Students’ Academic Needs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Schools Where Discipline Is Effective. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Principles and Processes for Effective Discipline . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
A Variety of Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
Social Responsibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Logical Consequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Contrasting Logical and Natural Consequences. . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Reality Therapy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Social Contracting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Contracts Between Teacher and Student . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Contracts Between Student and Student . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Conflict Resolution/Mediation Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Peer Mediation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Assertive Discipline. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Preventing Misbehavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Proper Use of Praise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Gaining Parental Support. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Concluding Comment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
9 Schoolwide Initiatives That Reduce At-Riskness. . . . . . . . . 209
Early Intervention. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
“Success for All” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
Parental Involvement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
The Nature of the Parental Involvement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
Parent Support vs. Parent Involvement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
The Social Organization of Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Two Syndromes Affecting At-Risk Youth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
Stigma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
Rejecting the Rejecters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
In-School Diversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Case Study: The Diversion of Jay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
Teacher Advisory Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Issue 1: Assignment of Students. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
Issue 2: Frequency of Meetings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
Issue 3: Cross-Age or Grade Level Groupings? . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
Issue 4: One Year or Multi-Year Assignments? . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
Issue 5: Structured or Unstructured Meetings? . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
Table of Contents ix

Issue 6: Total Faculty Involvement or Volunteers? . . . . . . . . . . 231

Child Assistance Teams (CAT) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
Push-In/Not Pullout Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
A Case in Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
10 More Schoolwide Initiatives and a Vision of Restructuring . . 239
Value 1: Expectations Should Fit the Individual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
The Shopping Mall School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Curricular Diversity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
Standards-Based Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
Necessary Ingredients for Standards-Based Education . . . . . . . . . . 248
The Belief System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
The Time Dilemma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
Schoolwide Behavioral Expectations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
Academic Standards and Authentic Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
The Clarity of Our Learning Targets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
The Performance That Will Be Used for the Assessment . . . . . . . 256
Determining Criteria for Evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
Simulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
School Restructuring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
Elementary Schools: Multi-Aged Grouping and the Non-Graded
School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
Coalition of Essential Schools: A Secondary Restructuring Program . . 268
Concluding Comment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
11 Evaluation of At-Risk Prevention Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
A Timely and Rigorous Focus on Theory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
Three Distinct Program Purposes (From Chapter 1) . . . . . . . . . . . 275
A Six-Step Process. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
Step 1. Setting a Clear Target . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
Step 2. Theory Articulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
Step 3. Selecting Interventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
Disaggregation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
Choice of Interventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
Step 4. Selecting and Developing Benchmarks.. . . . . . . . . . . 281
Step 5. Monitoring Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
Discrepant Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
Step 6. Determining Outcomes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
The Six-Stage Process in Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
Epilogue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
 ABOUT
THE AUTHORS
Richard Sagor consults with schools and educational organizations interna-
tionally on local school improvement initiatives. Dick’s 17 years of public
school experience includes teaching literacy and social studies to students rang-
ing from the gifted to those with severe learning challenges. He has been a head
teacher at an alternative school, a High School Principal, a director of curricu-
lum and instruction, and an Assistant Superintendent. Before founding the In-
stitute for the Study of Inquiry in Education, Dick was a Professor of Educa-
tional Leadership at Washington State University. He has written extensively on
student motivation, leadership and collaborative school improvement.

Jonas Cox is on the faculty in the School of Education at Gonzaga University

in Spokane, Washington. Jonas’s fifteen years in education include teaching ele-
mentary and middle school along with his work in higher education. He is a
Piagetian Scholar and actively researches the development of logical thought in
children. When he is not teaching, researching, or grant writing, he can be found
on his small farm fixing his 1954 John Deere G tractor. He lives there with his
wife Charlene, his son Aaron, his daughter Rachel, two dogs, five cats, and thir-
teen chickens.

x
 PREFACE
Schools, Schooling, and Learning:
Working our way through the minefields
of purpose and function.
In all likelihood what brought you to this book was its title. Your interest and
concern regarding reaching out to and teaching at-risk students creates a special
bond between you the reader and us, the authors. We have organized this book
to facilitate our working together, authors and reader, to improve the prognosis
for our most vulnerable children.
Of course, what might have attracted your attention was the picture of the
skateboarder on the cover. Frequently the very young people who are most dis-
engaged at school are the same kids who willingly take risks and persevere for
hours trying to master difficult skills outside of school. Intrigued by the motiva-
tion that kids willingly invest in skating, as well as being truly amazed at the
tricks they could do, Dick began asking street kids to explain to him what it took
to become good at their sport and why they stuck with it.1 He learned that it did
not matter how difficult the challenge, or what was the nature of their past ex-
periences. In the right environment these “at-risk” young people could and
would prevail at anything.
The ideas that we will be presenting throughout this book apply the very
lessons on motivation we learnied from these kids to the acquisition of aca-
demic content and skills for life-long learning.
The preface that follows and part one of the text will be devoted to getting us
on the same page regarding the context of school reform. Later in parts two and
three of the text, we will explore a number of “how to’s” for school improve-
ment. The focus of part two is strategies that have demonstrated success in lift-
ing the achievement of all students when faithfully implemented in heteroge-
neous classrooms. Later, in part three we will shift our focus to schoolwide
initiatives that have succeeded in public schools serving diverse student popu-
lations.

1 See “Lessons from Skateboarders,” Richard Sagor, Educational Leadership,

September 2002: (60)1.

xi
xii At-Risk Students: Reaching and Teaching Them

As we sat down to work our way through the writing of this book, the sec-
ond edition of At-Risk Students: Reaching and Teaching Them, the very first thing
we did was revisit the dreams we held for the kids we have had the pleasure of
teaching. We believed then and we still believe today that this is where all dis-
cussions regarding school improvement should begin.
In Chapter 10, where our focus becomes evaluating our at-risk prevention
efforts, we will explore in some detail the importance of beginning school im-
provement work with “dreams.” We decided this concept should be introduced
at the outset, because “dreaming” was critical for us in the writing of this book.
We found that basing our work upon this common denominator (our hopes and
dreams for our students) enabled us to turn differences in professional perspec-
tive into productive dialogue.
As parents we find the process of dreaming about children’s futures to be
quite natural and pleasurable. Among the nicer aspects of dwelling on our own
children’s “hoped-for” futures, is the way it provided us with a momentary re-
prieve from those pesky realities that often seem to overwhelm us. More impor-
tantly, dreaming about a “rosy future” is a reminder of why one went into the
parenting business in the first place. However, the best part about looking
down the road is the opportunity it affords a parent to get back in touch with
our deepest and most profound emotions. This is because the sweet dreams we
hold for our children were born of the purest of all sentiments, unconditional
parental love.
For the two of us the task of building a single shared dream for the students
we’ve had in class was quickly accomplished. This was because it required so
little additional work. The dream we hold for every child we’ve ever had in
class, is the same glorious dream that we hold for our own children. No doubt
this explains why we chose education for our careers. Not only do we share a
single dream for the future of every child we’ve worked with, but, we believe
that there is no better place for a non-parent to contribute to the development of
youth and help them negotiate their transition to adulthood, then in schools
and classrooms.
Once an educator has dreamed-up a “destination” (the purpose of dream-
ing) then the next step is preparing an itinerary (a set of milestones) that must be
successfully passed along the way. If the resulting list is truly comprehensive,
then the achievement of these milestones should lead to arrival at the Promised
Land. As authors we found reaching agreement on a set of “essential
milestones” was easy.
The essential milestones/goals that emerged became the outline for this
book. Specifically, we deeply believe that every student needs to develop per-
sonal mastery of a set of essential academic skills and a deep understanding of
the context in which they are to be used. We will not attempt to dictate to you,
the reader, what those academic skills”should be. We feel this would be pre-
Preface xiii

sumptuous and redundant, as nearly every state and province has its own list of
essential skills that form the backbone of our new standards-based education
system.
Therefore, this book will focus on academic goals that cut across all the tra-
ditional disciplines. We believe success with these goals results directly from
the methods we utilize when teaching academic material. The generic goals we
will address concern the development of attributes and attitudes that allow stu-
dents to derive authentic feelings of
¨ competence,
¨ belonging,
¨ usefulness,
¨ potency and
¨ optimism.
Furthermore, it is our view that students must be in possession of irrefutable
concrete evidence of their success if they are to be convinced that these emotive
feelings (competence, belonging, usefulness, potency, and optimism) will ulti-
mately empower them as adults in the key life-long domains of
¨ work,
¨ leisure,
¨ family,
¨ community affairs, and
¨ personal relationships.
2

Few would argue with the above as worthy goals for education. However,
our knowledge of social science reminds us that the stated purposes and ulti-
mate social function of social institutions are often two very different things.
Nowhere is this more true than with schools.
Social function refers to the actual role an “organizational practice” furthers
for a society.
Ever since America hatched the idea of universal free public education,
commentators have had a field day discussing the social functions of the 13
years of compulsory schooling. These include everything from fueling the
economy, to protecting the jobs of adults (by keeping kids out of the sweat
shops), to preparation for democratic citizenship. Occasionally our under-
standing of the social functions of schools were drawn from an objective review

2 These goals were adapted from the work of Arthur Pearl, Professor at
Washington State University, Vancouver.
xiv At-Risk Students: Reaching and Teaching Them

of reality, but, not infrequently, such statements are a reflection of the biases of
the commentator. This was particularly true when a national commission told
us that our public schools were placing the “Nation at Risk” through the pro-
motion of “a rising tide of mediocrity.” Such a statement implied that a key so-
cial function of the public school was preparation of young people for the world
of work. Otherwise, it would be illogical to blame the schools for the low level of
worker productivity that prevailed at the time. (When the economy is booming,
many of us wish those same critics would give the schools credit for the na-
tions's economic strength.) On the other end of the spectrum, we’ve all heard
radical commentators argue that the real social function of public schooling has
been sorting out kids, and preparing them to fit neatly and proportionately into
an inequitable class structure.
It is not our purpose here to resolve these conflicts nor to argue that our
schools should or should not carry out any specified list of social functions.
However, our many years attending school, working in schools, and conduct-
ing research with schools has made us certain about one thing: the very act of
spending 13 years in full-time attendance at a public institution, along with
your age-mates, plays a key role in defining who you are, where you are going,
and how you see yourself in relationship to the rest of society.
Whatever one’s biases, it is clear that those students who experience aca-
demic and social success in school are more likely to feel good about their
emerging relationship with society, while other kids, specifically those whose
school experiences are filled with failure and rejection, will draw very different
conclusions.
This brings us to our overriding purpose in writing this book…our desire to
provide you, the reader, with a potpourri of helpful suggestions to consider as
you attempt to make each student’s 13 years of public school a journey rich with
success and filled with authentic feelings of competence, belonging, usefulness,
potency, and optimism.
Wistfully one could argue that it would be nice if teachers could be com-
pletely free to construct all the mechanisms necessary to realize this dream. But,
alas, that is not an option. Today’s public school teachers work in local systems,
which are part of larger state, and provincial systems, which themselves are re-
sponsible for carrying out national education policies. Consequently, external
requirements (some we agree with and others we have concerns about) are
placed both on educators and on the students they are working with. The cur-
rent educational landscape in North America now demands that students be
educated in accordance with an agreed upon government curriculum, that stu-
dent performance be measured by mandated objective tests, and that perfor-
mance must meet or exceed a set of predetermined, unambiguous standards.
Severe high stakes consequences are already beginning to impact those stu-
dents and schools that are not measuring up. Schools are losing their local con-
Preface xv

trol as well as state and national funding (and a commensurate loss of respect
from their patrons) while students are facing retention when standards are not
met. Worse yet, when students fail to keep up with their peers on these man-
dated measures, they often become frustrated, lose self-esteem and emotionally
(if not physically) drop out.
Without question, the current wave of standards based reform will create
winners and losers. There is no getting around this conclusion. Therefore, the is-
sue before us has become (regardless of how we feel about these policies), how
can we re-invent our schools and classrooms so that everyone is likely to
emerge a winner?
As educators we may differ on what is the best theory of learning. For exam-
ple, Jonas finds himself attracted to what Dick sometimes calls the “unstruc-
tured and nebulous” perspective of constructivism. Meanwhile Dick often
finds himself arguing for positivist behavioral pedagogy. Sometimes listening
to the two of us debate could move a student of Shakespeare to paraphrase the
Bard, “Me thinks they do protest too much!”
Throughout this book we will try to be lighthearted about our differences
and the problems we’ve encountered in reconciling these often caricatured and
competing ways of knowing. However, there is a method to our madness. Pri-
marily we see teachers as professional decision makers. Folks who, on a daily
basis must pick and use strategies to best achieve their goals—in this case pro-
moting success for all of their students. Furthermore, we recognize that often
circumstances specify criteria by which school success will be determined. Fre-
quently these criteria are established by folks other than educators. Because to-
day’s teachers find themselves standing on ever shifting sand we thought that
the best thing we could offer to you, the professional educators in the trenches,
are options not prescriptions.
Our plan is to offer different strategies in each chapter. Each program or
technique included is one with strong potential and proven track record of help-
ing young people achieve educational success. But, that is all we can provide.
You, the reader must then take a hard look at your students, examine your con-
text and make your own professional decision on which strategy appears to
hold the most potential for your classroom.
We have decided to use an abbreviated shorthand to refer to the two pri-
mary approaches or theories of learning used in this book:
Model 1 Classical Positivism
Instructed Skillsè Successè Applicationè Meaning
Model 2 Developmental Constructivism
Meaningè Constructed Understandingè Application è Success
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