ative salaries;
(7) disregard for and lack of teacher participation; (8) vague objectives; (9) the use of poor evaluation procedures; and (10) the increased quantity of services being substituted for change in the quality of content of existing programs.
Due to all of the just stated problems with the existing approach to helping at-risk students, many educators have looked in new directions for ways to reduce the risks faced by disadvantaged groups. One of these directions, according to Christiansen, Christiansen and Howard (1997), has been to conduct research into the personality characteristics of what are commonly referred to as "resilient" students. The authors define resilient students as students with various stressors which place them in danger of school failure and dropout but who, nonetheless, go on to develop stable, healthy personas and to recover from or adapt to life's stresses or problems.
The purpose of this chapter is to examine the literature on the characteristics of resilient students in order to determine those traits, attributes, abilities, and so forth that contribute to the development of stability despite the disadvantages and stressors that are associated with students being labeled at-risk. The reviewed studies are divided into two categories: (1) early, historical, and classic research in the area; and (2) current research in the area. Based on the reviewed studies, the third and final section of the review presents a series of conclusions about resiliency and what schools and school districts can do to foster resilient characteristics in students.
Characteristics of Resilient Students
Early, Historical, or Classic Research
Most of the early research in the area was, essentially, foundational, which is to say that its primary contribution consisted of studies which established that there are personality traits and characteristics that increase at-risk students' chances of success in...