CONTENTS -- INTRODUCTION -- PART 1. PORTRAITS -- 1. At-Risk Students: Insights from/about Research by Robert Donmoyer and Raylene Kos -- 2. The Purpose of Portraits: Rethinking the Form and Function of Research on at-Risk Students by Robert Donmoyer -- 3. "Nobody knows my life but me!" The Story of Ben, a Reading Disabled Adolescent by Raylene Kos -- 4. Ways of Being at Risk: The Case of Billy Charles Barnett by Thomas Barone -- 5. Ellen, a Deferring Learner by Karin L. Dahl -- 6. Andy and Libby: At Risk or Undervalued? by Karen L. Ford -- 7. Karen: An Interaction of Gender Role and Reading Disability by Raylene Kos -- 8. "Something to keep the relationship holding": Victoria, a Pregnant Adolescent by Kathryn Herr -- 9. Andrew: The Story of a Gifted at-Risk Student by June Yennie-Donmoyer -- 10. Alston and Everetta: Too Risky for School? by James T. Sears -- 11. Paul: Differentiating Disorder and Intervention by John J. Gleason -- PART II. POLICIES, PROGRAMS, AND PRACTICES -- 12. Structuring for Idiosyncracy: Rethinking Policies, Programs, and Practices for at-Risk Students by Robert Donmoyer -- 13. Placing Children at Risk: Schools Respond to Reading Problems by Richard L. Allington and Anne McGill-Franzen -- 14. "Teacher, why am I failing? I know the answers": The Effects of Developmentally Inappropriate Assessment by Pamela O. Fleege and Rosalind Charlesworth -- 15. "A Different Kind of Responsibility" Social and Academic Engagement of General-Track High School Students by Sandra B. Damico and Jeffrey Roth -- 16. Direction with Discretion: Reading Recovery as an Example of Balancing Top-down and Bottom-up Decision Making by Patricia L. Scharer and Nancy C. Zajano -- 17. In the Shadow of the Excellence Reports: School Restructuring for at-Risk Students by Andrew Gitlin, Frank Margonis, and Heather Brunjes.

18. Emergent Spanish Literacy in a Whole Language Bilingual Classroom by Irene Alicia Serna and Sarah Hudelson -- 19. "It's Not a Perfect World": Defining Success and Failure at Central Park East Secondary School by Mark A. Faust -- 20. Creating a Culture of Writers with at-Risk Students by June Yennie-Donmoyer and Robert Donmoyer -- 21. A Teacher Reflects on his Urban Classroom by Art Isennagle -- 22. The Risk of Writing Outside the Margins: A Reexamination of the Notion of Access by Bonnie Meath-Lang -- 23. A Policy Perspective: Overcoming Gridlock Beyond Schools by Brad Mitchell -- POSTSCRIPT: IN SEARCH OF A BOTTOM LINE -- REFERENCES -- Chapter 1 -- Chapter 2 -- Chapter 3 -- Chapter 5 -- Chapter 6 -- Chapter 7 -- Chapter 8 -- Chapter 10 -- Chapter 11 -- Chapter 12 -- Chapter 13 -- Chapter 14 -- Chapter 15 -- Chapter 16 -- Chapter 17 -- Chapter 18 -- Children's Books Cited -- Chapter 19 -- Chapter 20 -- Chapter 21 -- Chapter 22 -- Chapter 23 -- INDEX -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- I -- L -- M -- O -- P -- R -- S -- T -- W.