The Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed at Risk (CRESPAR) was established in 1994 and continued until 2004. It was a collaboration between Johns Hopkins University and Howard University. CRESPAR’s mission was to conduct research, development, evaluation, and dissemination of replicable strategies designed to transform schooling for students who were placed at risk due to inadequate institutional responses to such factors as poverty, ethnic minority status, and non-English-speaking home background.Central East Middle School in Philadelphia and CRESPAR are working together to implement a Talent Development Middle School model of schooling. Part of this effort includes use of the Student Team Reading (STR) program, which changes both the instructional processes and curriculum in Reading, English, and Language Arts (RELA) to create a motivational climate that is conducive to learning and personal development. Teachers at Central East Middle School in Philadelphia were trained in STR in the summer of 1995 and received curricular materials and technical support throughout the first semester of the 1995–1996 school year. Implementation and outcome data were collected in February 1996 at Central East Middle School and a matched comparison school.Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U. S. Department of Education (R-117-D40005
