This research is located within the call for schools to raise the achievement of students from culturally, linguistically and economically diverse (CLED) backgrounds. It combines quantitative and qualitative research methodologies to compare and contrast preservice teachers' (PSTs) responses to "scenarios" that explore beliefs regarding students…

This paper discusses dropout prevention initiatives by the Malaysian government for the disadvantaged indigenous Orang Asli people in the rural villages of Peninsular Malaysia. The roles of the Ministry of Education (MOE) as well as the Institutes of Teacher Education (ITEs) are highlighted pertaining to efforts at improving the quality of…

Benarty Primary School is situated in Lochore, Fife, Scotland. The school is proactive in developing self regulation; restorative and nurturing approaches. It aims to build resilience in all of its children, staff and families. Playground Pals have been established at Benarty Primary School since 2009 and as part of that programme, there have been…

"Positive Unified Behavior Support" (PUBS) is a school-wide intervention designed to establish uniform attitudes, expectations, correction procedures, and roles among faculty, staff, and administration. PUBS is grounded in the general principles of positive behavior support and represents a straightforward, practical implementation model. When…

Moses is entering 7th grade this semester. He is a graduate of the Accelerated Learning Program (ALP), a Liberian government initiative to assist over-age students to complete six grades of primary school in three years. He has all the interests of a typical 15-year old--fixing generators, playing football, earning money to buy a school uniform.…

What causes students to leave school? According to Azzam (2007), over 47% of students in the United States who drop out of school reported they did so because school was boring and irrelevant to their life situation. What can schools and teachers do to encourage students to stay in school? One possible solution may be to look at experiential…

How welcome parents and carers feel at their children's school seems likely to have a significant influence on the degree to which they and their children engage with its educational programme. The ethos of the school and the nature of the classroom environment as determined by teachers are therefore significant and continuing features of its…

For the last four years the author has been involved with the design, administration and writing up of the results of competency tests which have been conducted for Grades 3 (ages 8-9)and 6 (ages 11-12) in his home province of the Western Cape, South Africa. In the course of this work, he and some of his colleagues working on this project have had…

The Comprehensive School Reform (CSR) program has become a valuable resource in the implementation of the Puerto Rico Department of Education's educational reform process. To support the process, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico granted computerized equipment, reading and mathematics software and training designed for schools. This included reading…

In the second of a two-part series, this paper looks at the global spread of school dropout and at the factors that keep elementary school-aged children outside education. In order to have a more complete picture of the dropout problem, it necessary to take into account pupils who do not continue their education beyond primary education or who…

Liberia's emergence from 15 years of tremendous upheaval has left it with an unsettled domestic security situation, a disrupted formal economy and a virtually destroyed national infrastructure. Faced with a burgeoning school-age population and the growing demand for education, Liberia's new National Transitional Government--composed of rebel,…

At the core of school reform is an unwavering belief in possibility: the deep conviction that each and every student can reach higher academic levels than typical expectations would have people settle for. This belief in possibility acknowledges the potential of every student to learn, every teacher to teach, and every family member to partner…

This article focuses on the problem of overage children populating some of South Africa's primary schools, particularly poor rural communities. The exploratory case study aimed to investigate the various barriers to learning and development that result in the enrolment of overage children in two primary schools in a rural district in…

Chance UK is a unique charity in the UK that specialises in mentoring programmes for primary schoolchildren with behavioural problems. It was founded in 1995 by a policeman, Chief Superintendent Paul Mathias, who believed that by stepping in early, young children with behavioural difficulties could be given the chance to develop the necessary…