CRESPAR: Report #3

The Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed at Risk (CRESPAR) was established in 1994 and continued until 2004. It was a collaboration between Johns Hopkins University and Howard University. CRESPAR’s mission was to conduct research, development, evaluation, and dissemination of replicable strategies designed to transform schooling for students who were placed at risk due to inadequate institutional responses to such factors as poverty, ethnic minority status, and non-English-speaking home background.The Talent Development approach to helping greater numbers of students succeed in middle school is based on a belief that all students can learn challenging material if the right types of support are given. The approach draws upon insights from recent research on alternatives to tracking, on the components of effective middle schools, and on clear theories of how to foster the positive relationships and supportive conditions that are so important to middle school adolescents, especially those adolescents placed at risk. This report presents the essential components of the Talent Development framework and describes their initial implementation in Evans Junior High School in Washington, DC and in Central East Middle School in Philadelphia.Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U. S. Department of Education (R-117-D40005