The National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform, influential in middle-grades policy, advocates a three tiered approach envisioning high-performing schools as academically rigorous, developmentally responsive, and socially equitable. This report discusses pioneering programs, critics' concerns, exemplary Michigan programs, and urban schools'…

Across the U.S., urban school districts are losing students and shuttering schools. In Detroit, some 35,000 students have left the city schools in less than a decade, and the city will close 34 schools and reassign more than 10,000 students in 2006. However, the trend is not limited to Rust Belt cities like Detroit, although their problems tend to…

This report, from the Council of the Great City Schools' "Cities Building Cities" program, examines Detroit Public Schools' instructional program. The main goals of the Council's review were to: (1) compare Detroit with other urban school districts that were raising student performance; (2) propose strategies--based on what was working…

Analyzes the experiences of three midsize Michigan school districts in implementing school desegregation programs under the Emergency School Aid Act (ESAA). Concludes that effective implementation requires clear goals and objectives, committed leadership, community support, and on-going political support. (FMW)

Catholic high schools in Chicago came onto the educational landscape in significant number in the 1920s, a critical time period in American educational history. In an era focused on efficiency and compulsory schooling, Catholic high schools organized themselves to meet the legal statutes affecting them directly and those that would govern their…

The needs assessment model developed in the Lansing School District has the advantages of encouraging decentralized educational decision-making at the building level including program budgeting and personnel assignments, of providing a system for community input, and of providing a commonality of student goals and objectives between all buildings.…

This study explores the types and extent of federal and state aid to Catholic elementary education. It examines the situation in Michigan, Missouri, and Ohio and provides case studies of Catholic elementary schools in Detroit, St. Louis, and Toledo. In Ohio, probably the most generous state with respect to nonpublic schools, the elementary school…

This analysis identified school districts in Michigan that, using a definition most parents would find quite reasonable, have failed to meet their fundamental mission. Using data reported by the school districts themselves and the state Department of Education, the report details the number of such districts, the number of students in those…

Examines the distrubution of the human resources of teacher experience and training, and class size among Detroit's schools, with particular emphasis on relationships between the percentage of black students in a school and the quality of its instructional staff. (Author/JM)

There is a rich history of researchers developing curricular materials aimed at enhancing student learning in American classrooms. Though many of these innovations have been successful on a small scale, institutionalizing them so they become part of a district's instructional culture has been a challenge. As large districts try to scale up and…

Discusses a case which attempts to address the problems of city-suburban segregation: its significance lies in the uniqueness of the remedy applied to Detroit and in the high probability that this type of remedy, if applicable, would be applicable to other metropolitan areas. (Author/JM)

Discusses the social and legal implications of the situation in which Detroit has been placed by the Supreme Court decision that lower federal courts could not involve white suburbs in the integration of urban schools, noting that the city is still required to make changes in its public schools in order to overcome racial discrimination. (JM)

DISADVANTAGED CHILDREN ARE CONCENTRATED IN THE INNER-CITY AREA. THE SCHOOL SHOULD BE CONCERNED THAT THE CHILD'S EXPERIENCES, BOTH AT HOME AND AT SCHOOL, HELP HIM TO REALIZE HIS CAPABILITIES BY RAISING HIS SELF-CONFIDENCE AND MOTIVATION. THE DETROIT GREAT CITIES PROGRAM CONSISTS OF FIVE PARTS. THE FIRST PART IS CONCERNED WITH TEACHER TRAINING…

THE SCHOOL SHOULD ASSUME GREATER RESPONSIBILITY AS AN AGENCY OF SOCIETY FOR CHILD WELFARE. WHEN THE CHILD'S WELFARE IS THREATENED BY NEIGHBORHOOD CIRCUMSTANCES, THE SCHOOL SHOULD INTERVENE. THE COMMUNITY SHOULD INVEST MORE MONEY IN EXISTING SCHOOL FACILITIES TO TRANSFORM THE SCHOOLS INTO YEAR-ROUND COMMUNITY CENTERS CAPABLE OF PROVIDING A POSITIVE…

This study examines whether there is disproportionate discipline of minority students in Michigan's public schools and assesses the enforcement efforts of State and Federal agencies to ensure equal educational opportunity in this regard. The extent to which minority students were being disproportionately suspended and expelled was studied, as were…