Low Achieving Children

Investigating and measuring risk factors and markers for low achievement in children, this unique volume studies children from gestation to age seven. This monograph evaluates the social, biological, and cognitive characteristics that served effectively as predictors and correlates of learning disabilities in normally intelligent children.

Originally published in 1983. This book concentrates on the psychological factors within immigrants and on the importance of these for relations with locals and for education. It argues that immigrants experience a state of estrangement from both their own societies and from the receiving society. The educational effects of this manifest themselves partly in poor achievement, partly in poor behaviour and in dropping out of society. These are seen as the results of a diminished self-worth, a feeling of being pre-programmed to failure, and of being outsiders. This study develops a psychological model of the state of affairs and of the desirable educational measures needed for coping with it – in educational planning, curriculum development, teacher training and so on. It presents guidelines or suggestions for areas and kinds of actions, not presentating specific materials or programmes. This book fosters development of insight and understanding among teachers, policy-makers, teacher trainers and immigrants themselves.

A large body of research in disciplines from sociology and policy studies to neuroscience and educational psychology has confirmed that socioeconomic status remains the most powerful influence on children’s educational outcomes. Socially disadvantaged children around the world disproportionately suffer from lower levels of educational achievement, which in turn leads to unfavourable long-term outcomes in employment and health. Education in the Best Interests of the Child addresses this persistent problem, which violates not only the principle of equal educational opportunity, but also the broader principle of the best interests of the child as called for in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Building on the children’s rights work accomplished in their previous book, Empowering Children, Brian Howe and Katherine Covell identify three types of reform that can significantly close the educational achievement gap. Their findings make an important argument for stronger and more comprehensive action to equalize educational opportunities for disadvantaged children.

Working mothers, broken homes, poverty, racial or ethnic background, poorly educated parents—these are the usual reasons given for the academic problems of poor urban children. Reginald M. Clark contends, however, that such structural characteristics of families neither predict nor explain the wide variation in academic achievement among children. He emphasizes instead the total family life, stating that the most important indicators of academic potential are embedded in family culture. To support his contentions, Clark offers ten intimate portraits of Black families in Chicago. Visiting the homes of poor one- and two-parent families of high and low achievers, Clark made detailed observations on the quality of home life, noting how family habits and interactions affect school success and what characteristics of family life provide children with "school survival skills," a complex of behaviors, attitudes, and knowledge that are the essential elements in academic success. Clark's conclusions lead to exciting implications for educational policy. If school achievement is not dependent on family structure or income, parents can learn to inculcate school survival skills in their children. Clark offers specific suggestions and strategies for use by teachers, parents, school administrators, and social service policy makers, but his work will also find an audience in urban anthropology, family studies, and Black studies.

Examines the conditions under which motives to achieve are fostered in children. The papers included in this volume reflect the major traditions of research in the field and bring together a set of studies for achieving a better understanding of the ways in which achievement-related personality characteristics develop and function in evaluative or competitive situations.

Tips for atrisk African american students

The basic purpose of this book is to help policy makers at all levels of government understand that (1) widespread adolescent under-achievement is not susceptible to solution by educational interventions no matter how much money is allocated to public education; and (2) there are unidentified educational and civic costs to focusing on low achievement and to expecting public institutions of education (for K-12 and college) to solve a growing social problem. Many policy makers seem to think (1) that all Hispanic and African American students are low achievers even though only 25 percent of this country's 15 year-olds are designated by tests as low achievers and Hispanic and African American children constitute 41% of our public school population; (2) that most children in low-income families are Hispanic or African American even though more "white" children are; or (3) that teachers/schools are the cause of low achievement. Educational institutions still cannot solve a non-education-caused problem and haven't done so for over 50 years despite all the public and private money that has been allocated.