Educators have begun to focus on the third wave of reform, the prevention of dropouts (Hill, 1987). The first two waves of reform which took place during the 1970 1s and 1980\u27s focused heavily on how to improve teaching--which ultimately led to higher standards in academic performance. These standards, along with a variety of other factors, have increased the population of potential dropouts. Beck and Muia (1985) agree that the first two reforms had the unintended result of leaving further behind the students most in need of help in meeting higher standards. Therefore, the third reform taking place in the 90 1s is concentrating on what schools can do to prevent these students from dropping out of school and subsequently, failing to become productive members of society
