T he increasingly high number of at-risk middle and high school students-those in danger of dropping out of school because of academic failure or other problems-is a major concern in education today. At-risk students show persistent patterns of under-achievement and of social maladjustment in school, leading to their failure to finish high school. Indeed, the national dropout rate averages about 25 percent (Sklarz 1989), and for minorities, that rate is higher, with an average of 30 percent leaving school before they graduate (Liontos 1991). In Texas, the dropout rate for Hispanic Americans is 45 percent. Additionally, students in urban schools have much higher dropout rates than those in other areas: in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit, and other major cities, dropout rates range from 40 percent to 60 percent of the total school population (Hahn 1987). An interesting approach to helping at-risk students succeed is to examine the notion of "resilience." Despite incredible hardships and the presence of at-risk factors, some students have developed characteristics and coping skills that enable them to succeed. They appear to develop stable, healthy personas and are able to recover from or adapt to life's stresses and problems. These students can be termed resilient (Winfield 1991). In one recent large-scale study, approximately 19 percent of students who could be classified as at-risk became individuals who had success in school, with positive goals and plans for the future (Peng, Lee, Wang, and Walberg 1992). What enables these resilient students to succeed