My Back Pages

Preventing Early School Failure

Ben Licciardi

In the December 1992 issue of Educational Leadership, researchers Robert Slavin, Nancy Karweit, and Barbara Wasik explore the question of preventing early school failure, taking a close look at various approaches and their cost and effectiveness. The good news, they conclude, is that early failure is entirely preventable in all but the most extreme cases.

Read the article: Preventing Early School Failure: What Works?

Slavin, Karweit, and Wasik note that, "If a cook puts a high flame under a stew, brings it to a boil, and turns it off, the stew will not cook. If the cook puts a stew on simmer without first bringing it to a boil, the stew will not cook. Only by bringing the stew to a boil and then simmering will the stew cook." Likewise, they say that if early childhood intervention efforts are both intensive and sustained, the results will be "substantial and lasting." Strong efforts with no follow-up or mild but consistent interventions are both ineffectual.

One of the most provocative questions the researchers address is, how many students can we help and at what cost? Intervention efforts are not cheap, they note, and the cost of ensuring that no students fall through the cracks is enormous. However, the authors assert that there are hidden costs in letting students fail. Retaining children is pricey, and society eventually pays for the problems often associated with school failure, such as delinquency and early pregnancy. On all levels, they assert, effective early childhood intervention is crucial.

In "My Back Pages," we look at important issues through the historical lens of the Educational Leadership archives. ASCD members can access EL issues from 1943 to the present by signing in at www.ascd.org.

Ben Licciardi is a project coordinator in ASCD's Information Resource Center.

ASCD Express, Vol. 5, No. 15. Copyright 2010 by ASCD. All rights reserved. Visit www.ascd.org/ascdexpress.