Examining one traditional classroom and one progressive classroom for the at-risk middle school student: A case study of two rural redesign programs.

摘要

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact that the creation of programs or instructional strategies that were devised and designed solely for the purpose of improving academic achievement among at-risk students has on the at-risk middle school student.;In this case study, educational success from school redesign programs was qualitatively measured based upon an oriental inquiry-based qualitative research design. The data obtained for this study were derived from interviews, observations, and archival documents. The data collected for this study were intended to address the following questions: (a) How do redesign programs support teachers? (b) How does the redesign program benefit middle school, at-risk students? (c) What challenges, at the school level, do teachers face in regard to redesign programs?;The observations in this study revealed that the students‘ perceptions of the program were positive. The teacher inquiries in this study revealed that the vast majority of the students (after being in the program for at least a semester) stated that they would like to remain in the program and they also stressed concerns about whether they would have access to a similar program once they were promoted to high school.