EVERY CHILD
HAS THE CAPACITY TO SUCCEED IN SCHOOL AND IN LIFE.

Yet far too many children fail to meet their potential. Many students, especially those from poor and minority families, are placed at risk by school practices that sort some students into high-quality programs and other students into low-quality education. CRESPAR believes that schools must replace the "sorting paradigm" with a "talent development" model that sets high expectations for all students, and ensures that all students receive a rich and demanding curriculum with appropriate assistance and support.

THE CENTER FOR RESEARCH ON THE EDUCATION OF STUDENTS PLACED AT RISK (CRESPAR) was established in 1994 as a collaboration between Johns Hopkins University and Howard University. CRESPAR's mission is to conduct research, development, evaluation, and dissemination of replicable strategies designed to transform schooling for students who are placed at risk due to inadequate institutional responses to such factors as poverty, ethnic minority status, and non-English-speaking home background. The work of the Center is guided by three central themes:

TALENT DEVELOPMENT The fundamental theme in all CRESPAR programs of research is the design of educational interventions that will develop the talents of all children. We see children as having personal, cultural, and social assets that are too often neglected or underutilized in educational systems, causing many children to be placed at risk. Our research programs seek to understand children's strengths, create educational methods, and develop family and community partnerships to build on those strengths, evaluate the results of these approaches, and disseminate strategies that prove to be effective.

SUCCESS AT KEY DEVELOPMENTAL HURDLES Along with a talent development focus, all CRESPAR programs aim to identify points in children's schooling when things may go wrong. We create interventions at those points to ensure that children remain on a successful learning trajectory that leads to good adjustment to new schools, high school graduation, college attendance, and success in the workforce.

SCALING UP EFFECTIVE PROGRAMS It is not enough to know how children learn and how we can teach them all successfully. We also must know how to disseminate successful strategies and how to create school, district, state, and national policies that will guide the effective implementation of proven programs and practices.