In 1983 the National Commission on Excellence in Education declared the United States "A Nation at Risk" because of inadequate education. A decade and a half later, the United States is still at risk because U.S. schools are failing children. Dropout rates have declined, and college attendance has risen, but student achievement has…

This digest discusses issues in the selection of an appropriate focus for a focus school. Schools with a theme and schools targeted for particular students, which are both components of the focus-school genre, have long been a part of the nation's education system. A number of school districts, especially in urban areas, have established focus…

The "digital divide," the separation between those with access to new technologies and those without, is seen by many as one of the leading equity issues in the United States. Computer and Internet access varies widely across the United States, with better educated people, those with more money, and whites more likely to have Internet…

In the past several decades, individuals have been responding more actively to political and personal pressures to identify with a specific group that shares their background. For many people of mixed racial, ethnic, and cultural heritage, making such an identification is complicated. It is important for society to foster the positive development…

A school's promotion policy is an integral component of its overall educational policy. In conjunction with achievement goals, it defines the levels of performance that permit students to move through grade levels and to graduate. This digest reviews the various promotion policies and practices in current use by secondary schools, particularly…

This digest discusses some of the major trends and changes that are taking place in school desegregation in the 1990s. One of the most prominent current trends is the increasing number of court cases that release school districts from court supervision of their desegregation efforts (known as granting "unitary" status). A second…

Research on microcomputers in education suggests that this new technology may be widening the gap between rich and poor schools and talented and underachieving students. Public schools in poor districts and small parochial schools are the least likely to own computers. One survey indicates that while 66 percent of affluent school districts have…

This digest focuses on several issues in school desegregation that stem from recent changes in demography, policy, and research. Change in student diversity, the first consideration, is even more marked in cities than in the country as a whole, with only 9 of 47 urban cities in the Great City Schools network having a majority white enrollment.…