Using “Promising Programs” to Improve Educational Processes and Student Outcomes

Abstract

In this chapter Sam Stringfield, Mary Ann Millsap and Rebecca Herman examine a 1990s study of 10 “promising programs” for improving the academic achievements of students whose families’ life circumstances have placed them in danger of failing to thrive academically. These are children born to poverty, members of racial or cultural minorities, and/or children in whose homes a language other than English is spoken the majority of the time. The percentage of U.S. students that will be in one of those risk-indicating conditions will exceed 50% in the early 21st century. The structure of the chapter is as follows: a brief history of research on the use of specific programs to affect student achievement is followed by a description of the U.S. federal compensatory education program. Next is a description of the design of the Special Strategies studies. Each of the 10 designs are briefly described, followed by an overview of findings. In concluding the chapter Stringfield and his colleagues conclude with a discussion of the implications of those findings for additional research and practice.