Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/At-risk students


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was   KEEP. Shown to be a valid topic. Mergers or suggested improvements should be discussed separately from deletion discussion at the articles talk page. ·Maunus· ƛ · 18:21, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

At-risk students

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In my entire life, I have honestly never heard of this phrase. I have heard of kids referred as having special needs. This phrase is just offensive towards the special needs population. Eivmeidwl (talk) 21:17, 30 July 2009 (UTC)  Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, \ Backslash Forwardslash / {talk} 12:47, 7 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Education-related deletion discussions.  --  The  left orium  21:52, 30 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Keep 500k+ ghits:  Triplestop   x3  02:01, 31 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Comment Although Google at first says there are 522,000 hits for "at-risk students" (with the quotation marks), if you go to page 8 (with 100 per page), it runs out at #778. The rest are "entries very similar to the 778 already displayed" (in Google's words). So it would be best to look beyond the number of matches. Fg2 (talk) 13:18, 31 July 2009 (UTC)
 * That said, it gives up after only 508 results if you search for Wikipedia. I know for a fact that they've indexed more pages than that. Basically, I think Google gives up after a while.
 * Google will only present the unique web sites that come in the first 1000 hits, so paging down will never show you more than 1000 pages however many hits there are for a particular search argument. That is one of the many reasons why the number of Google hits found is not an indication of notability: what matters is the content of the potential sources found by search engines, i.e. to use Google web searches to find evidence for or against notability you actually have to make the effort to read them and evaluate their reliability rather than just go by numbers. Phil Bridger (talk) 23:46, 1 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Weak keep. It is a real term that I'm very familiar with and I'll keep it on the basis of the context that I know it from, I know there has to be plenty of academic sources for it. The term is used in federal grant applications I've contributed to. But don't read this as a promise to go find them. Niteshift36 (talk) 02:07, 2 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Delete Merge/redirect to Alternative education. No significance on the school community. Schools rely on gifted students for their name to be notable. If the majority in a low-income school were at-risk students, would the public really care? No, they wouldn't care. They would just move away and go to a better school district that has high-achieving students. Esthertaffet (talk) 19:38, 4 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Comment As the nominator correctly states, it is offensive to the special needs population. It is not only stigmatizing to the special needs population but it also has negative connotations about alternative schools. Alternative schools have students who are at-risk for academic failures. Is it really necessary to use the term "at-risk students"? It is more commonly accepted to refer this population as "special-needs". That being said, I think it would be best to have it merged/redirected to alternative education. Esthertaffet (talk) 18:39, 5 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion so consensus may be reached.


 * Keep commonly used term in midwest US education circles, never viewed it as offensive. It recognizes that some students are at risk of immediate harm.--Paul McDonald (talk) 15:19, 7 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Keep We are not "Politicallycorrectpedia," so we do not make articles go away solely because, by someone's understanding, the term might be offensive, if it is the term used by reliable sources. The term "At risk students" is used in the titles of reliable sources cited in the article asa references. Additionally, a Google Book search shows 713 results for "at risk student," compared to only 624 results for "special needs student." I have understood "special needs students" to have "particular learning disabilities" "neurological impairment," or "motor impairment," as described in "The student teacher's handbook" by Sara L. Schwebel, page 144. They include among others those formerly called "retarded" who once would have been institutionalized, but in recent years were "mainstreamed." "At risk students" is a larger group, including those with no identified specific impairment, but who are "at risk" of dropping out or worse. They might attend only sporadically, be disruptive, "hang with the wrong crowd,"  skip school or engage in drug abuse. "Using educational technology with at-risk students" by Roxanne Mendrinos, p 17 defines "at risk students" as average or below average students who are in danger of dropping out, or who do not have the job skills needed in the job market (paraphrased). I have known a number of "special needs students" for whom "dropping out" was never even considered, even though they had brain damage from birth trauma, severe injuries or birth defects which required a motorized wheelchair, or were autism spectrum and had severe social interaction problems. I have known "at risk" students who dropped out though of high intelligence and possessed of charisma and gifted at interpersonal interactions.  A merge to Alternative education makes as little sense as merging Student to School .Edison (talk) 15:37, 7 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Comment There are "special needs students" that have "particular learning disabilities" as well as emotional issues that cause them to attend only sporadically, be disruptive, "hang with the wrong crowd," skip school or engage in drug abuse. Some of these students do not get the opportunity to attend an alternative school due to the fact that alternative schools for "at-risk students" do not exist in every single community. In some cases, alternative schools are used as a "dumping ground" (I don't even approve of this term) for any kid that misbehaves without considering all options first in the "least restrictive environment" (The US term). And also there is no "special needs students" article on Wikipedia because it is something readers already know. The same applies to "at risk students". Readers know about it and know how offensive it sounds. Exactly, why should we have an article on "at risk students" when it has negatively impacted the special-needs population? I have wanted at risk students' article at first to be deleted but it was needed to let people know that it is a term that people use, unfortunately. To clarify, I do not want "at-risk students" deleted, but to merge/redirect to the appropriate article. Esthertaffet (talk) 17:33, 7 August 2009 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.