Children at Risk: Poverty, Minority Status, and Other Issues in Educational Equity [antikvár]

Education 2000 and Beyond: The Challenge of Education's "At Risk" Students National attention continues to focus on American education. More than 50 recent national reports have discussed the many variables that influence our educational institutions and inevitably affect the direction that future "schooling" takes. Two presuppositions appear to underline this renewed attention to the education of our children: Societies past, present, and future rest on the fundamental educational capabilities of their members. Our society, with its dramatic demographic, employment, and value shifts, must rethink its present educational practices. As educators and practitioners, we must recognize that more education occurs outside of the kindergarten to college "schooling" than within such a context. As an example, consider the large number of seminars, symposia, conferences, computer literacy classes, and organized educational experiences you have participated in since the termination of your formai education. Most would agree that such learning experiences significantly augment formai coursework and add to the skills or knowledge necessary for progress in a work setting. Today, only one third of all educational endeavors in the United States occur during the primary, secondary, and post-secondary college periods! Education provided outside these periods is specifically designed to fill the needs of the workplace and will continue to outstrip, in both time and resources, the efforts of the kindergarten to college educational system. Schools must determine their role vis-a-vis the work place and the specialized training individuals will receive in these settings. This role determination is particularly important when individuals are likely to undergo two to three career changes and an average of seven to ten job shifts during their working lifetime. Under such circumstances, schools are unlikely to be able to provide adequate job skill training. Currently, technological innovations are resulting in job markets that are too broad and volatile. Recognizing the need for specific work-related learning, schooling in the United States must take on new responsibilities, somé similar to and somé significantly different from those in the past. First, it is imperative that schools serve students by providing a curriculum and environment that will enable them to develop a strong foundation of basic generic academic skills. These skills, not surprisingly, are the same three Rs of Reading, 'Riting, and 'Rithmetic that have been taught since the beginning of formai schooling in the United States. Such skills provide the critical stepping stone upon which additional learning can occur. Second, in addition to emphasizing the development of these vitai skills for all students, schools must emphasize the development of those dynamic processes which will enhance humán relationships, problem solving, and civic responsibility. At first glancé, the challenges of providing these skills, one set being largely rote or mechanical in nature while the other emphasizes creativity and social values, appear disparate. Students in the 21st century, however, will face social, economic, and technological change at an even greater pace than that presently being experienced. To be prepared for the challenges created by these circumstances, students must be able to react to rapidly changing situations with reflection and analysis regardless of the context, be it employment, civic, or culturally related. Thus, it is critical that education for the year 2000 and beyond consist of a curriculum that is collaborative, highly socializing in