Book excerpt: This Special Issue includes works on linking data and learning, using student-assessment results, data mining, data decision making for teachers, identifying student's needs with technology and data use in urban high schools. The goals of the Journal of Education for Students Placed At Risk (JESPAR) are to provide the best research-based information possible to professionals involved with improving the education of students placed at risk and to promote the use of that information through effective communications among researchers, policymakers, and practitioners in the field. JESPAR publishes articles geared to academic researchers, policy analysts, and especially to practitioners regarding practical, research-based progress in the field of education for students placed at risk. The journal offers refereed research articles on promising programs; descriptions of promising programs in the field; case studies of schools that work; literature reviews; book and report reviews; regular communications on Title I regulations; and school and district practices from federal, state, and local perspectives.