From Risk to Resiliency: A Resource for Strengthening Education's Stepchild

The failure of continuation schools to educate our most vulnerable adolescent populations is slowly removing them from our educational landscapes. Millions of struggling teens, lacking alternatives, are being set adrift without capacity or hope. Yet their failures frankly, are unnecessary. Research-based study offering school-wide direction and practice is strongly evidenced throughout educational theory and practices, extending opportunities for significant continuation growth. A successful continuation setting, supported by study and introduced through From Risk to Resiliency, offers opportunities for program developers to bring together personal, closely held stakeholder values with program and classroom practices, opportunities only now being realized.

Table of Contents:
Preface Acknowledgements Chapter 1: Dropouts Who's Dropping Out? What Do Dropouts Say? What Have We Learned? Chapter 2: A Condition of Benign Neglect Decoupling School Design Descriptions Curriculum & Instruction Continuation School History Student Performance Expectations Institutional Train Wreck Lack of Research Chapter 3: Pathways to Change Effective Educational Change Constructs Cultural Mindsets: Central to School Change Addressing Teacher Adversity A Teacher's Explanatory Style Teacher Concerns Creating Key Relationships Changing Staff Relationships Creating Community Relationship Adapting Change Components and Innovations Synthesizing Practitioners with Innovations External Change Interventions: Mushrooms School Aims: Happiness in Schools and Classrooms Evaluating Change Chapter 4: Diffusing Teacher Change Resistance Change Agents Teacher Resistance Themes Teacher Resistance: External Barriers Distributive Leadership Diffusing Resistance Through Communication Beyond Resistance: What if Change Succeeds? Chapter 5: Building a Resiliency-Based Paradigm Educational Resiliency Defined Four Theories Resiliency Theory School Connectedness Beginning a Trust-Building Process: Listening A Sense of Autonomy Altruism Building High Internal Expectations Believing in Student Resilience Effective Teacher Preparation Constructs Protective Factor Descriptors Limitations of Resiliency Theory Self-Efficacy Theory Life Satisfaction Findings Home Life Satisfaction Factors School-Wide Corrective Factors Effects of Supportive Relationships Gratitude Social-Cognitive Theory Bonding: An Essential Change Agent Hope Theory Measuring Hope Q & A: Resiliency-Based Change Concerns Author's Note References Appendices

About the Author :
Dr. William H. Warring has spent 45 award-winning years injecting productive relevancy into both business and educational settings. His efforts in both professions have received local, county, and state-wide recognitions. Along with his wife, ten children...and so far, 15 grandchildren, he lives in the San Francisco Bay Area where he writes and conducts educational research.

Review :
Warring’s observations on continuation schools—alternative high school pathways for students not thriving in comprehensive high school settings—are based on his experiences as a continuation school teacher and educational consultant in California. The reform of these schools is desperately needed; in some large urban school districts in California, less than 50 percent of the students graduate from high school. Descriptions of the historical development of these schools and the challenges current students face lead to a discussion of their functions as safety nets, safety valves, or dumping grounds. Warring calls on using a resiliency-based paradigm to develop learners’ self-cognitive practices, self-efficacy, resiliency, and hope. He also discusses strategies for reducing faculty and community members’ resistance to change. School faculty should increase the quality of their interpersonal relationships with students, improve self-perceptions of all community members, promote school-wide adaptive mental practice, and increase opportunities for students to participate in school-sponsored and out-of-school extracurricular activities. . . .Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. This book warrants a place on the book shelf of anyone seeking to make and embrace changes that ensure all students receive the best possible education regardless of what school they attend. Finally, a book that tells all about reforming continuation schools and what most traditional high schools are missing. From Risk to Resiliency addresses serious problems facing alternative schools, with hard data, great examples, and simple stories involving everyday occurrences in continuation schools everywhere. Dr. Warring addresses concerns surrounding our continuation students with compassion and respect showing strong concern for the well-being of adolescents living among adverse conditions. From Risk to Resiliency is a powerful resource providing vital continuation education reform evidence for ALL educational program developers. This book navigates educators through the facts surrounding continuation schools, their roadblocks, perceptions, myths, strategies, and more.This book's topics serve as springboards from which educators can plunge forward, discovering deeper means of benefiting continuation students. An excellent source for summarizing the purpose and challenges continuation schools encounter on a daily basis.This book moves from struggles encountered by continuation schools to effective means for affecting their changes. This book is written in an easy-to-read format that includes anecdotes to clarify evidence-based supports necessary for effective school change. The conclusion addresses a much needed description for supporting and developing resiliency in students as well as schools. Dr. Warring's work profoundly demonstrates the delicate balance necessary in supporting the diverse needs of students growing up in adverse environments. Dr. Warring emphasizes the rarity of safety net schools and their value throughout alternative school settings.