While it is nationally recognized that there is a high need for teachers, particularly those of diverse backgrounds and with ESL/bilingual certifications, barriers to certification continue to exist for undocumented individuals. Within the state of New Jersey, these barriers mirror the national limitations. Although New Jersey has made efforts to…

For years, points out David L. Kirp, critics have lambasted public schools as fossilized bureaucracies run by paper-pushers and filled with time-serving teachers preoccupied with their job security, not the lives of their students. Yet, as this article describes, running an exemplary school system does not demand heroes or heroics, just hard and…

America is failing its young Black boys. In metropolitan ghettos, rural villages and midsized townships across the country, schools have become holding tanks for populations of Black boys who have a statistically higher probability of walking the corridors of prison than the halls of college. Across America, the problem of Black male achievement…

Satellite courses enable New Jersey high school students and teachers in urban and small districts to take advanced-level courses that otherwise would not be available. The Satellite Educational Resources Consortium offers 35 inservice programs for teachers. (SI)

Describes Network in the Schools (NIS), a project to enhance teens' academic achievement and self-esteem, which uses small group classroom discussions regarding self-affirmation, social concerns, self-improvement, and reflection, and meetings for group sharing and self-expression. Presents findings that the program results in enhanced parent…

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…

New Jersey is unique as a State in that it has developed a set of objective criteria for defining its urban districts. The State Education Department has used these criteria to focus on the educational needs of urban districts. Organizational planning of educational aid to urban districts is taking place through three new initiatives: the…

Anchoring, a term rooted in the seafaring world, is a useful metaphor for contemplating the role of music in schooling, and particularly for thinking about the implications of including music in the professional development school (PDS) reform movement. In 1999, the College of Education at William Paterson University (Wayne, New Jersey) joined two…

The Urban Development Component at Research for Better Schools, Inc., attempted to attack problems facing urban secondary schools in Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania by using the "natural channels" of educational and civic associations to disseminate research and development information and to work collaboratively toward improving…

The purpose of this report is to examine the need for integration of various basic skills resources. The report concentrates on the comparison of data in the areas of policy, program integration, attitude and planning, student achievement, and cost effectiveness of the categorically-funded programs. Federal and local studies on compensatory…

The Urban Job Center was designed to help break the poverty cycle for single parents and their children by increasing single mothers' participation in job training, providing them with such supportive services as child care and transportation assistance, helping them gain access to higher-paying jobs, and informing parents about realistic…

This paper describes a project conducted to strengthen consumer and homemaking education programs in economically depressed, urban areas of New Jersey by increasing the competence of home economics educators. The project focused on meeting the needs of school-age pregnant and parenting students. Objectives included identification of relevant home…

The Dale Avenue Early Childhood Education Project was developed in the Dale Avenue School in Paterson, New Jersey through funding the Elementary Secondary Education Act Title III. The Project was validated in 1973 by the standards and guidelines of the U.S. Office of Education as innovative, successful, cost effective, and exportable. As a result,…

This report describes a broad-based, statewide program to increase full-time employment among urban high school graduates in New Jersey. The program is intended to increase students' preparation for and access to the job market. The report contains seven sections. The Introduction summarizes the problem and the State's proposal. Section 2,…

The publication describes a community learning center established in Newark, New Jersey, in 1969 with concern for children, parents, and people trapped by the limiting institutions of our cities, and which is composed of three program components: a day care center (for 60 three to five year olds), an after school and summer program (for 50-100…