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CHAPTER 4
School Issues That Relate to At-Risk Children and Youth
SUMMARY
In education, the term at risk refers primarily to students who are at risk of school failure.
As we discussed earlier, at risk actually means much more than flunking reading or math,
or even dropping out of school. Yet from an educator’s perspective, educational concerns
define at-risk issues. School problems and dropout are linked to many other problems
OUTLINE
The Value of Education
♦ Federal Engagement in Education
♦ Federal Legislation: No Child Left Behind; Race to the Top
♦ State Initiatives: Common Core
Research on Effective Schools
♦ Variables in Research on School Effectiveness
o Leadership Behaviors
o Academic Emphasis
♦ Definitional Issues in Research on School Effectiveness
o School Culture
o Student Climate
o Peer Involvement
o Teacher Climate
Educational Structure: Schools and Classrooms
♦ School Structure
♦ School Choice
♦ Charter Schools
♦ Classroom Structure
♦ Curriculum Issues
Education Structure: Innovations
Conclusion
SUPPLEMENTS
PowerPoint: Chapter 4 Summary Slides
ACTIVITIES
1) An activity for the start of class: In groups, have students develop a list of
qualities they feel make an effective school. Bring them back into the larger
group and debrief their ideas before discussing the elements of effective schools.
2) Using the Diaz Family case study, have students write down what they feel most
ESSAY QUESTIONS
1. Explain why prevention and treatment of teens should focus not only on the
2. Describe six elements of effective schools and discuss how these factors influence
3. Explain the issues in our educational system that the Program on International
4. Why do you believe that the United States has such a high rate of success in teen
reading, when in other subjects it falls behind other Western nations? Could the
5. Why do you believe that education is important? Do you believe that this
importance can be communicated to at-risk teens? Explain and justify your
answer. Do you believe that a belief in the importance of education will
necessarily lead at-risk teens to pursue it? Why, or why not?
MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS
The following questions conform to the standards required by CACREP, EPAS, and other
accrediting agencies.
1. In the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) program, schools required to demonstrate
improvement will do so most efficiently by:
A. focusing on resources on those children who test just below the minimum pass
rates.
B. increasing school choice options for parents.
C. insisting stronger accountability from schools to meet pass rates for
standardized test.
D. encouraging students to have a higher attendance rate.
2. What is not a goal of the Race to The Top (RTTT)?
A. Improve student achievement
B. Improve high school graduation rate
C. Increase community and parent support
D. Ensure post-secondary success
3. The Program on International Student Assessment (PISA) goal is to assess how
well schools teach youth to think and solve common everyday problems in what
three areas?
A. Science, mathematics, and art
B. Reading, mathematics, and science
C. Literature, art, and science
D. Mathematics, literature, and social science
4. Which of the following is not a strategy to create a positive school climate?
A. Increased teacher empowerment
B. Increased student empowerment
C. Increased collaborative efforts and decision making
D. Increased presence of security guards
5. Team teaching provides teachers with:
A. the ability to receive immediate feedback from one another.
B. a change of instructor for the classroom.
C. more time to grade papers.
D. control of larger number of students.
6. Positive Behavior Support (PBS) is an alternative to “zero tolerance” polices that:
A. support teacher behavior with data that supports effective decisions and
practices that support student behavior.
B. focus on the children with the highest incident of behavior problems.
C. provide faster responds to increasing incidences of disruption.
D. have yet to be proven as an acceptable alternative to Zero Tolerance.
7. What might explain the shift in the self-confidence levels of adolescent girls?
A. Peer pressure to conform
B. The realization that others are more talented than they are
C. A psychological shift from the need to achieve to the need to belong
D. Increased competition from adolescent boys
8. What description is not a discussed characterization of effective schools?
A. Community support
B. Academic emphasis
C. Zero Tolerance
D. Student involvement
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
A-head: Research on Effective Schools
9. Teens often regress into past behavior after receiving treatment owing to:
A. an unstable personality.
B. divorced parents who struggle with communication.
C. a poorly implemented school curriculum.
D. reconnection with a deviant peer group.
10. Which of the following is not considered part of the Educational Structure?
A. School structure
B. Curriculum issues
C. Hot lunch program
D. Classroom structure
11. Which of the following is not an element common to effective schools?
A. Teachers engage students.
B. The staff is dedicated and caring.
C. Teachers are bilingual.
D. There are stable classroom routines.
12. Which of the following is not an example of social capital?
A. Supportive parents
B. Community support
C. Financial support
D. Supportive peers
13. A focus on students’ performance on standardized tests is:
A. an effective way to measure overall performance.
B. unfair to certain cultural minorities.
C. a narrow view of education.
D. a purely subjective measure of success.
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
A-head: Research on Effective Schools
14. School Choice has been criticized for:
A. replicating inequalities based on socio-economic status
B. reducing the number of teachers needed
C. increasing class size
D. introducing competition
15. The primary organizing principle of the American educational system has been:
A. the pursuit of excellence.
B. the pursuit of conformity.
C. grade configuration.
D. ability streaming.
16. Which movement emerged from the school choice movement?
A. The charter school movement
B. The school within a school movement
C. The streaming movement
D. The conservative competition movement
17. What is flipped in a flipped classroom?
A. The teachers learn, the students teach.
B. Students do the grading.
C. What is done in class is done outside of class.
D. The class is taught outside where possible.
18. Which of the following is not an aspect of flipped classrooms that could help at-
risk youth?
A. Increased student-teacher interaction
B. Students can learn from peers.
C. Students can pace their learning.
D. Students can receive immediate feedback.
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
A-head: Educational Structure: Innovations
19. How might the charter school movement be contributing to a decline in teaching
standards?
A. It uses large classrooms that do not require student-teacher interaction.
B. It does not require that teachers be certified.
C. It does not require that teachers be bilingual.
D. It requires teachers to pass a certain number of students regardless of their
achievement.
20. In education, what does the term “at-risk” refer to?
A. Students who are at risk of school failure.
B. Teachers who are at risk of unemployment.
C. Schools that are at risk of closure.
D. Students that are at risk of failing to go to college.
21. The ability to recall facts is indicative of a student’s problem-solving skills.
A. True
B. False
22. Being assigned a mentor is important to ensure that new teachers continue
teaching.
A. True
B. False
23. The United States maintains separate and unequal schools and neighborhoods.
A. True
B. False
24. Effective schools are often located in communities that have high expectations of
them.
A. True
B. False
25. Classroom structure affects the academic experience of at-risk students.
A. True
B. False
