Many attempt to address the documented achievement gap between urban and suburban students by offering special programs to enrich urban students' academic experiences and proficiencies. Such was the case in the study described by DeGennaro and Brown in which urban students participated in an after-school technology course intended to address the…

Vocational student organizations offer opportunities for urban students to achieve their potential as they experience personal growth, a sense of direction, achievement, and the rewards of leadership. (Author)

This teacher always thought that it was the loudest voices that got heard, but she was wrong. In this document, a teacher shares the greatest tool she has discovered in teaching inner city youth, her quiet voice.

Argues that blending school psychology and school counseling training to produce comprehensive mental health specialists is a way to address the identified social and emotional needs of children in urban schools. Such specialists could result in more comprehensive, coordinated school mental health services and lead to improved academic…

Responds to article by Bill Linn concerning the urban student's alienation and suggests that Linn may have a defeatist attitude. (MKM)

School choice is increasingly promulgated as a promising education reform policy for failing urban schools, but no solid evidence has yet shown the promise fulfilled. The authors argue that choice based on market theory without a moral center is insufficient. Without a moral foundation, such market-driven choice programs may actually disadvantage…

This book examines the policies and practices that create educational inequality in the United States and what can be done to reduce their influence. The introduction identifies children who are disadvantaged by the U.S. educational system, and documents the results of society's failure to serve them properly. Part One, which contains four…

Describes personal experiences teaching English in a ghetto high school. Suggests that the college teacher of English should know how little preparation these students have in the way of thinking and working by themselves and how little relevance college education may have for them. (MKM)

This report describes Project HOT, which is designed to create knowledge about teaching higher order thinking skills across ability levels of African-American students enrolled in urban schools. The report states that three activities are central to the overall purpose of the program: (1) training students to think critically and creatively; (2)…

This paper describes the Chicago School Reform Act of 1988 (CSRA); outlines work of the Chicago Panel on Public School Policy and Finance; and traces the Chicago School Reform (Illinois) movement, an effort to address more adequately the previously unmet needs of "at-risk" children by creating a systemic opportunity for schools to…

Public obsession with issues of measurement, early intervention, promotion, suspension, education, age of exit, and alternative education dominates discourse on what can be done about high school dropouts. Additional controversial issues of societal structural interdependence are examined for their importance in education reform for minority and…

The experiences of a literature teacher in an inner-city high school in Houston (Texas) give a portrait of the urban classroom and the successes and failures of the everyday life of the urban teacher. The school, in a poor neighborhood, is unremarkable, unstimulating, and ill-equipped for serious learning. The students, who are almost entirely…

This paper identifies conditions in the lives of poor urban high school students that may cause classroom management problems. Urban student teachers are urged to look at these conditions from a humanistic perspective to help them understand their students and deal effectively with those problems. Specific urban secondary classroom management…

Charter schools, performance contracts, and school choice programs are among the initiatives for change that can be made into an integrated program for reforming urban education, one that shifts from a bureaucratic and archaic system into a deregulated system that focuses on student performance. (SLD)

The recommendations for educational reform in this document are submitted by the Attorney General's office to the Minnesota State Legislature in the context of two lawsuits related to at-risk students pending in state district courts. Recommendations related to early education include screening all young children for a number of problems,…