Editor's Introduction
Sam Stringfield

On February 2, 1999, John H. Hollifield, Jr., founding co-editor of the Journal of Education for Students Placed At Risk and Associate Director of the Center for Social Organization of Schools (CSOS) at Johns Hopkins University, died of cancer. John was at his home, surrounded by his family.

The entire JESPAR family counted John Hollifield a personal friend and invaluable colleague. He had a large heart, and loved few things more than helping a good idea come to light. John enjoyed advancing the writing careers of young scholars, particularly those who had themselves been "at risk" at earlier phases of their lives. The next issue of JESPAR, Volume 5, Numbers 1 & 2, will be a special issue dedicated to his memory. It will include articles from several research teams at the Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed At Risk (CRESPAR). Scholars who worked with John for 20 or more years will author several of the articles.

This issue of JESPAR contains two case studies. The first is a longitudinal account of a school in inner-city Chicago. Nesselrodt and Schaffer report that the staff and students at Goldblatt School, rather than sinking in despair, sing "A song of faith. . . A song of hope." Shorr and Hon report on a high school’s successful efforts to implement a career academy. This is the second report of a successful career academy published in JESPAR (McPartland et al., 1998).

Our two research articles report on the effects of two promising initiatives. Slavin et al. (1996) published a review of research on Success for All in our initial issue. Nearly four years later, Slavin and Madden provide valuable achievement and other data from bilingual adaptations of Success for All. Hastie and Sharpe, authors of the second research article, provide an assessment of the effects of a "Sport Education Curriculum" on at risk boys.

This issue’s five book reviews examine issues in the education of, and leadership of schools serving, a wide diversity of students placed at risk.

As in previous years, volume number four concludes by acknowledging the persons who have served as JESPAR reviewers over the last 12 months. Our editorial team wishes to express heart-felt thanks to all of our reviewers, to the scholars who contributed articles, and to you, JESPAR’s readers.

References

McPartland, J., Balfanz, R., Jordan, W., & Legters, N. (1998). Improving climate and achievement in a troubled urban high school through the Talent Development model. Journal of Education for Students Placed At Risk, 3(4), 337-361.

Slavin, R.E., Madden, N.A., Donal, L.J., Wasik, B., Ross, S., Smith, L., & Dianda, M. (1996). Success for All: A summary of research. Journal of Education for Students Placed At Risk, 1(1), 41-76.