At first glance, the 2010 MetLife Foundation-NASSP Breakthrough Schools (BTS) appear to have little in common: Five are middle schools, five are high schools, seven are public schools, two are public charters, and one is a private school. On the surface, the only factor that all the schools appear to share is that their student populations have…

Over the past several years, high school graduation rates in the United States have come under intense public scrutiny fueled by a renewed interest in high school reform as well as higher public school accountability requirements. At this time, two issues dominate the debate over high school graduation rates: First, there is a need for a common…

In 1995, after years of conflict between Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts and its adjacent neighborhood, the university traded "barriers for partnership and collaboration" and became part of the University Park Neighborhood Restoration Partnership (UPP). UPP was established primarily to stabilize the community by…