Educating the Throw-Away Children: What We Can Do to Help Students at Risk: New Directions for School Leadership, Number 6 (Single Issue: School Leadership)

Throw-away children fail academically, behave poorly in class, or refuse to follow directions; they are the special-needs kids, the minority-language kids, the disruptive kids, the pregnant kids, the emotionally disturbed kids, even the passive, forgotten kids. Blending practical strategies, research, and personal stories, this volume presents a number of successful programs for children at-risk, including: a charter school designed to address the needs of expelled middle school children; a Vancouver school dedicated to teaching the native Indian children previously educated on reservations; and a program for high-school dropouts with a competency-based curriculum and a shared leadership approach. The authors share the knowledge gained through their experiences: how educators can collaborate with the other significant adults in a child's life to lay the groundwork for academic improvement; how to reengage teenagers who have given up on school; and how high expectations and innovative instructional techniques can be powerful tools for creating student success. This volume demonstrates that educators can personalize the schooling process and facilitate students' growth into intelligent, resourceful problem solvers of the future. This is the 6th issue of New Directions for School Leadership. >

JOYCE TAYLOR GIBSON, assistant professor of education at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, focuses her teaching and research on leadership for change, cultural diversity, and family-school partnerships.