¶ … education topics of a certain flavor. Specifically, the author sought out articles about special attention and special case schools for troubled youth as well as the use of pre-kindergarten programs to give at-risk and other youth a head start before they enter the somewhat chaotic system that every other child must traverse. Put another way, the subject and articles all relate to how to improve and prepare students and thus prevent or remedy any struggles they may have before or during their schooling. This is important because for each article, there will be a summary of the thesis and main ideas, why the source is credible, and why this source would be worthy of an argument and/or persuasive paper. While not all journal articles are of the same quality, scholarly journals are always the best and most reliable source of information when speaking of an academic and scientific process or formal research but reputable newspapers and even some periodicals can yield worthwhile nuggets and points of their own.
Analysis
The first article up for review is related to student placement in alternative schools when the student in question is arguably or definitely at high risk. The article appeared in the journal Education and Urban Society and was published in 2007 by two professors at the University of Cincinnati. The article in question is a case study about said alternative schools and is meant to contribute to the greater volume of material on the subject. A major finding of this particular treatise is that both black and white students and teachers were able to cross socioeconomic and racial lines in a form and way that is often not seen in more traditional class settings and schools. The source is credible in that it is in a reputable journal and the professors in question...
It also gets points for its clear nod towards contributing to the aggregate research and material that others have and will be doing on the same or similar subjects. For that reason and several others, this source is absolutely worthy of inclusion in the author of this report's future argument/persuasive paper because it shows a clear outlier in the commonly held assumptions and beliefs about
teaching and
learning experience between black students and white students and between the rich and the poor. Put another way, it would seem that the effective environment for the teachers and students can have a very positive effect on the
learning process (Brown & Beckett, 2007).
The second of the three articles reviewed for this report is quite similar to the first in that it relates mainly and mostly to much the same subject, that being catering and focusing on at-risk students in a multi-cultural yet socioeconomically challenged school setting. It was authored by four different people at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. This second article was the result of a four-year longitudinal study that focused specifically on an intermediate school that was filled with multiple cultures and people of a generally low socioeconomic level. By "intermediate," the study is referencing students at roughly the 7th and 8th grade level if compared to the United States, or basically eleven, twelve and thirteen-year-olds. The study's results revealed that certain facets and approaches to teaching yielded the most results and achievement for students and educators alike. Those factors that seemed to be optimal included effective and collaborative school leadership, ongoing and perpetual school-wide development of faculty and staff, assessment data being used to inform and improve teaching and the appointment of a competent and observant literacy leader to improve and refine the curricula as needed. The schools that are a proverbial open book and which welcome outside third party review are typically interested in external validation and verification that they are doing things the right way or at least are moving in the right overall direction. This work is reputable as…
