This book is organized around CBUPO, the basic psychological needs of all students: competence, ,belonging, usefulness, potency, and optimism. When teachers and schools focus on meeting these needs, the rate of at-riskness is drastically reduced. This book presents practical strategies and tips to help teachers and administrators help all students become successful learners. The revised edition offers new material on using classroom assessment, complying with standards and high stakes testing, an updated approach to evaluating At-Risk Prevention programs, and alternative strategies for meeting the motivational needs of at-risk youth, from developmental constructivism to mastery learning.

Action research, explored in this book, is a seven-step process for improving teaching and learning in classrooms at all levels. Through practical examples, research tools, and easy-to-follow "implementation strategies," Richard Sagor guides readers through the process from start to finish. Learn how to uncover and use the data that already exist in your classrooms and schools to answer significant questions about your individual or collective concerns and interests. Sagor covers each step in the action research process in detail: selecting a focus, clarifying theories, identifying research questions, collecting data, analyzing data, reporting results, and taking informed action. Drawing from the experience of individual teachers, faculties, and school districts, Sagor describes how action research can enhance teachers' professional standing and efficacy while helping them succeed in settings characterized by increasingly diverse student populations and an emphasis on standards-based reform. The book also demonstrates how administrators and policymakers can use action research to bolster efforts related to accreditation, teacher supervision, and job-embedded staff development. Part how-to guide, part inspirational treatise, Guiding School Improvement with Action Research provides advice, information, and encouragement to anyone interested in reinventing schools as learning communities and restructuring teaching as the true profession it was meant to be.

This book details a five-step process to create a positive climate for school restructuring by conducting collaborative action research, shows eight ways to gather valid and reliable data, explains techniques for identifying and understanding problems, and illustrates four basic strategies for managing conflict and changing the status quo.