This qualitative phenomenological study explored how 19 school leaders in seven California comprehensive high schools were making sense of data and using data to transform their schools by closing achievement gap for historically underrepresented students. Data is a powerful tool in the hands of school leaders to transform patterns of inequality…

Using data from a multi-year study of eleven low-performing high schools, Cooper and Davis examine the academic aspirations and motivations of urban African American high school students in California. Situating their discussion within the context of neoliberalism and its manifestation in urban school reform and community cohesion, the authors…

In high schools throughout the U.S., the disparity in academic achievement between students in urban and suburban schools continues to widen. The achievement gap is exacerbated when race and socioeconomic class are considered. Research continues to document the multiplicity of factors that contribute to the success and failure of students within…

This article examines the norms of school failure and illuminates ways in which low-income students of color respond to their needs for educational advancement when conditions to support their college-going identities are severely limited in the school context. This study's primary finding confirms the value of a grassroots approach to improving…

This article examines the experiences of 20 students of color who voluntarily attend a racially integrated school. The study draws from the Socio-Cultural dimension of schooling as a framework to understand how the students of color fared on a social, cultural, and environmental level within a predominantly White school. Through a questionnaire,…

Despite efforts to bridge the racial achievement gap, far too many school children continue to fare poorly in our nation's public schools. Oftentimes urban and low income students are negatively labeled as low-achieving, disadvantaged, and struggling. Because of this, such students frequently receive inferior or deficient information from school…

Many black male adolescent high school students are at risk of academic failure due to complex institutional and socioeconomic factors they face within their schools and communities. Examines these challenges, highlighting such issues as socioeconomic status, social barriers, and the limited numbers of African American teachers available. Notes…

Explores the complex educational and social conditions facing African American males in public schools, highlighting the effectiveness of comprehensive school reform to overcome barriers to these students' learning (e.g, concentrated poverty, drug use, and violence). Discusses the importance of cultural relevance and teacher-student cultural…

Surveyed 1,090 high school students involved in a detracking effort in an urban school at which heterogeneous core classes in English and history were implemented. Data suggest that the core program promoted greater academic success for more students while maintaining rigorous academic standards and a culturally sensitive curriculum. (SLD)

Examines the response of a large racially mixed urban California school community to the tension between excellence and equity in public education and describes how 319 African American students experienced school reform, including detracking. Findings indicate the potential of detracking for real educational improvement. (SLD)

Qualitative data about the Baltimore (Maryland) Educational Scholarship Trust, a program to place disadvantaged and talented African-American youth in private schools were analyzed. The study reveals that peer networks of African-American students in predominantly White elite independent schools support these students' academic success, allow them…

Examines one community's efforts to fundamentally alter a high school's structure, curriculum, and instructional practices to provide greater educational opportunities for all students. The program used heterogeneous grouping in tandem with curricular and pedagogical changes. Student surveys indicated that the program was moderately successful in…