Noteworthy Perspectives: Classroom Strategies for Helping At-Risk Students.

Schools and districts across the country have long been focused on ensuring that students succeed in life and participate effectively in society. With the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act, efforts to realize this goal for all students have intensified. Though many children are successfully meeting state and local academic standards, others are not. To improve learning for all students, teachers and school leaders need information and guidance about evidence-based strategies that can assist students who are not meeting standards. In the summer and fall of 2002, McREL conducted a synthesis of recent research on strategies to assist students during the school day who are low achieving or at risk of failure. The resulting work was based on an extensive search and review of published and unpublished studies and qualitative as well as quantitative research. From this synthesis of research, McREL identified six general classroom strategies, which are reviewed in a condensed form in this edition of Noteworthy: whole-class instruction, cognitively oriented instruction, small-group instruction, tutoring, peer tutoring, and computer-based instruction. This issue of "Noteworthy" also includes a discussion guide designed to encourage dialogue about effective teaching for at-risk students. The guide is organized so that discussions can be organized around a single chapter topic or across a number of chapters. Questions are provided to provoke thought and conversation. The guide also provides a quick summary of the availability of research and results under each chapter heading, so it can also serve as a journal synopsis. (Author)