Presents two new approaches to improving academic achievement in inner-city schools--group-based, mastery-learning reading instruction and curriculum alignment. Explains why fundamental school reform and incremental improvement, introduced in the 1970s, failed to yield consistent results. (Author/WD)

This study attempted to determine whether better predictions of school-level achievement scores than have been reported for big city school districts could be attained by determining whether concentrations of poverty and related social characteristics are related to achievement in such a way as to make it possible to identify specific threshold…

"White flight" from desegregated schools is most likely to occur in city districts with a high proportion of minority students surrounded by largely white suburbs. Enrollment data from 1956 to 1974 for the Kansas City, Missouri Public Schools indicates that white enrollment decline tended to accelerate in schools with many black students…

This study compares the attitudes of black youth who have a favorable orientation toward the Black Panthers with those of black youth who appear to be oriented toward the NAACP, using data collected in five black segregated high schools. (Author/JM)

Reviews two major approaches to educational reform: (1) a model which sets up varying kinds of alternatives to traditional schools; and (2) an approach that attempts to bring about systematic reform throughout a school or school district. Suggests that these strategies are not mutually exclusive. (Author/GC)

Describes implementation of the National Urban Alliance for Effective Education's (NUA's) Professional Development Model in several locations, which is designed to help improve students' comprehension, content performance, thinking skills, and literacy by improving teaching and educational quality. Discusses NUA activities and approaches in the…

It is the responsibility of the educator to help change the harmful psychological, sociological, and physical environments in which inner-city students function. This responsibility extends beyond the school grounds and into the students' home and social lives. (CK)

Demonstrates that schools and other social institutions existing in inner city neighborhoods encounter a level of difficulty which even at its lowest point is sufficient to prevent them from operating successfully. (JM)

States some of the problems caused by bureaucracy in urban schools such as institutional complexity and overload, goal displacement, deficiencies in communication and decisionmaking processes, and social and psychological distances between client and institution. (JF)

Data on achievement gains in urban schools were analyzed to identify those schools with achievement consistently higher or lower than schools with similar characteristics. Only one school showed unusually high achievement gains. Efforts to identify and reward schools based on achievement may be erroneous and may decrease morale. (Author/VM)

Describes the results of a study of three programs successfully teaching basic skills. Characteristics of successful schools include careful alignment of curriculum and instruction and grade-level instructional planning. (Author/JM)

Examines the extent to which retaining low achieving students affects the average reading scores of the grade in which they are retained and the next higher grade. Analyzes data from one elementary school in Kansas City (Missouri). (FMW)