Deficient urban schooling remains one of America's most pressing--and stubborn--public policy problems. This important new book details and evaluates a radical and promising new approach to K-12 education reform. "Strife and Progress" explains for a broad audience the "portfolio strategy" for providing urban education--its…

The history of the world could be told through countless biographies, as Carlyle said, and these biographies undoubtedly would represent gifted individuals and their contributions at different times in different cultures of the world. The Greeks and Romans recognized the value of talent, as did the tribes of the Bible, responding to the parables…

This study evaluates how welcoming thirty American cities--the twenty-five largest and five smaller "hotspots"--are to "nontraditional" problem-solvers and solutions. It assumes that the balky bureaucracies meant to improve K-12 education and hold leaders accountable are so calcified by policies, programs, contracts, and…

Chapin Hall partnered with the W. Clement and Jessie V. Stone Foundation to host a convening for the Stone Foundation Education Grantees in October of 2008. The purpose of the convening was to gather key leaders in the education field for a discussion of the lessons learned in their work and how these lessons inform future practice and policy…

The Learning Communities Demonstration is a national research project that is testing the effectiveness of learning communities in six community colleges across the United States: Merced College in California; The Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC) in Baltimore, Maryland; Hillsborough Community College in Tampa, Florida; Houston…

A growing body of literature on community gardening, watershed restoration, and similar "civic ecology" practices suggests avenues for integrating social and ecological outcomes in urban natural resources management. In this paper, we argue that an environmental education programme in which learning is situated in civic ecology practices…

Representative samples of fourth- and eighth-grade public school students from 21 urban districts participated in the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in mathematics. Eighteen of the districts participating in the 2011 NAEP Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA) participated in earlier assessment years, while three districts…

Representative samples of fourth- and eighth-grade public school students from 21 urban districts participated in the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in reading. Eighteen of the districts participating in the 2011 NAEP Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA) participated in earlier assessment years, while three districts…

In "The Transformation of Great American School Districts", William Lowe Boyd, Charles Taylor Kerchner, and Mark Blyth argue that urban education reform can best be understood as a long process of institutional change, rather than as a series of failed projects. They examine the core assumptions that underlay the Progressive Era model of…

The $1 million Broad Prize in Urban Education, the nation's largest K-12 public education award given annually by The Broad Foundation, is awarded to urban school districts that demonstrate the greatest overall performance and improvement in student achievement while reducing income and ethnic achievement gaps. One hundred of the largest urban…

The $1 million Broad Prize in Urban Education is the nation's largest award in K-12 public education. The Broad Prize is given annually by The Broad Foundation in the form of scholarships to urban school districts that demonstrate the greatest overall performance and improvement in student achievement while reducing achievement gaps among ethnic…

This study sought to provide an empirical base for a theoretical and public policy analysis of the decentralization movement in urban education. This research includes an analysis of a large number of cities for which comparative demographic and political data could be found or developed as well as a manageable number of case studies.…

PRESENTED IN THIS CONFERENCE REPORT ARE HIGHLIGHTS FROM POSITION PAPERS, SPEECHES, AND DISCUSSION GROUPS. COMPLETE INTEGRATION RATHER THAN MERE DESEGREGATION, AND QUALITY EDUCATION FOR ALL WERE THE MAJOR EMPHASES OF THE CONFERENCE. POSITION PAPERS INCLUDED (1) A REPORT ON HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT'S PROJECT CONCERN, IN WHICH INNER-CITY STUDENTS ARE…

This book presents 22 personal narratives in which library directors, program administrators, teachers, tutors, librarians, and adult learners explain firsthand how literacy programs at libraries across the United States have changed people's lives. The following narratives are included: "Gloria's Story: 'She Wanted Me to Be Somebody'";…