Persistence to Graduation among At‐Risk Criminal Justice and Criminology Students: Experiences in Intervening with a Sophomore Cohort∗

A Seminar targeting academically at‐risk sophomores was developed and introduced in 2002 to address weak connectedness to the university and poor academic abilities. We measured changes in approaches taken to college studies by those at‐risk sophomores who enrolled in the course, as well as employed a longitudinal, quasi‐experimental design to track this experimental group (n = 29) and the remainder of the at‐risk cohort as a comparison group (n = 36). Our preliminary findings suggest that the Seminar has had a variety of positive outcomes, the most impressive impact being that the experimental group had dramatically better retention and graduation rates than the comparison group.     

Mystery to mastery: Shifting paradigms in gifted education

We provide here a brief historical analysis of a movement in progress from a belief‐based “mystery” model to an evidence‐based “mastery” model of giftedness and talent development. We have observed that educators concerned about exceptionally capable learners are moving from a categorical notion of “the typical gifted child” with somewhat mysteriously defined attributes and learning needs, toward the perspective that some children have exceptionally advanced learning needs that require more flexibly responsive educational attention. We discuss factors that differentiate the two models, and observe some benefits of the shifting paradigm, arguing that by conceptualizing gifted education as providing a dynamically responsive educational match for students who otherwise experience a mismatch with the curriculum normally provided, the mastery model is socially, educationally, and politically more defensible. We discuss some practical implications of this shift in perspective.