High school students continue to struggle in algebra, especially in large inner-city schools with underprivileged students. Students are not the only ones skirmishing with algebra. Teachers and school leaders are just as frustrated as they search for answers to complex teaching and learning problems. Two high school principals report the results…

This paper recounts one instructor's importing action research into teaching to improve a Tier II Professional Administrative Services Credential program at a public university in California. The state and local context is described, why and how the action research was conducted, and the lessons that emerged about what advanced students need,…

Citizen groups seeking active participation in school decision-making often discover that collective bargaining limits such efforts. Many important decisions are made behind closed doors during school board-teacher negotiations. In many areas, citizens are effectively excluded from having access to or adequately influencing the collective…

Drawing from three years of research in the classrooms of four highly effective elementary and secondary teachers in South Los Angeles, this article considers theories of teaching in urban contexts by examining effective practices in urban classrooms. It outlines an original framework of five indicators of effective teaching in urban schools and…

The focus on academic performance testing in elementary schools has caused a decrease in student experience in the arts. Visual arts (drawing, painting, sculpture, and collage) have been minimized in elementary schools. Without exposure to the special avenues of cognitive development and personal expression nurtured by visual arts, students are…

Educational researchers have paid little attention to "critique"--an activity young artists routinely use to assess and advance their creative projects. It is an activity from which they have a lot to learn, particularly in the context of community-based arts collaboratives. In school classrooms where teachers emphasize group projects…

This paper describes two studies from the Intersegmental Project to Assure Student Success (IPASS), which were conducted to determine whether instructional paradigms can be linked to student outcomes. The research has shown that success in the first English class, at any level, is a clear indicator of the interest and ability of college students…

A set of processes, occurring throughout the urban Southwest, is fragmenting and dislocating the barrios that exist in and around metropolitan areas, displacing the Chicano population and acting as a source of disruption and instability in the community. This pamphlet presents three interviews describing projects undertaken by Chicanos in three…

California is experiencing a critical shortage of nurses -- a shortage that is likely to increase in the coming years (Coffman & Spetz, 1999). Although much of the nation is also experiencing similar shortages, California's shortage is more severe than that of any other state in the nation (Bureau of Health Professions, 2002). Most analyses of…

In the past decade the demand for highly qualified and especially trained teachers of students with special needs has exceeded the supply. To meet this deficit, alternative programs have sprouted up across the country. One such program, at CSU Fullerton, is successfully trying to fill that gap. Some 280 students have completed the requirements of…

This annual report of the California Youth Authority (CYA) Research Program described 28 projects focusing on the causes, treatment, and control of delinquent behavior. Eight of the projects received grant support through federal aid, including: (1) The Community Treatment Project, a comparative assessment of institutional and community treatment…

The eight schools profiled in this document are serving different populations, but all of them are closing the achievement gap between low-income, minority, and special needs students and their peers. By trying out innovative new strategies, these schools are blazing a trail for others to follow. They are dispelling the myth that some students can…