"Math Expressions" is a curriculum for students in prekindergarten through sixth grade that aims to build students' conceptual understanding of mathematics and to develop fluency in mathematical problem solving and computation. The curriculum encourages student learning of mathematics through real-world situations, visual supports such…

An ever growing thirst for a framework that supports a flexible environment in which the schools and school districts are protected within a zone that recognizes school reform is everyone's business. Moreover, the teacher's role as a leader in her classroom and among her peers must become a part of the search for a culture of success. This article…

Achievement Plus is a partnership between the Amherst H. Wilder Foundation and the Saint Paul Public Schools to improve the academic achievement of low-income children in Saint Paul urban schools. Developed in 1997, Achievement Plus integrates the school community, families, and the resources of public and private organizations to ensure academic…

Over the past two decades, community organizing has emerged as an effective force for school improvement. In the context of shrinking education funding, stubborn opportunity and achievement gaps between low-income and wealthy children and between children of color and White children, and polarizing debate on school reform, community organizing…

This report misrepresents and then criticizes recommendations from the Minnesota Department of Education, a think tank and two independent study groups, each of which recently encouraged particular voluntary efforts to reduce concentrated poverty and achieve racial and socioeconomic integration in schools and housing in Minnesota. In building its…

Schools have long recognized the importance of creating climates that are peaceful, laying the groundwork for good student academic learning. This article explores the work of a large urban school district as it applies a community violence prevention model developed by the local county public health department to create peaceful communities.…

This article describes the development of a process for universal screening and progress monitoring in reading at the elementary level that can be used in a school-wide Response to Intervention (RtI) model. University personnel worked with teachers and administration at an urban elementary school to develop and implement the model in response to a…

Research Findings: We examined the reliability and validity of the language, literacy, and mathematics domains of "Work Sampling for Head Start" (WSHS), an observational assessment designed for 3- and 4-year-olds. Participants included 112 children who were enrolled over a two-year period in Head Start and a number of other programs…

The National Indian Education Study (NIES) is administered as part of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), which was expanded to allow more in-depth reporting on the achievement and experiences of American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) students. It fulfills a mandate of Executive Order 13336 issued in 2004 calling for closer…

The subject of urban schools has received extensive scholarly and popular attention in recent years, and a wide variety of policies to address the problem of low educational achievement has been suggested. This article, based on an analysis of documents and reports, in-depth interviews, and a variety of secondary sources, examines the first…

Civic engagement was studied in relation to overall development in adolescence, emerging adulthood, and young adulthood to examine how earlier activity involvement and success in prior and concurrent age-salient domains of competence may contribute to 2 forms of civic engagement in adulthood (citizenship and volunteering). Data on 163 youth were…

Fifty years after the U.S. Supreme Court held in "Brown v. Board of Education" of Topeka, Kansas, that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional the children in America's urban school districts attend schools that predominantly are racial-isolated. In Minneapolis, the student profile is in stark contrast with the racial…

The Minneapolis Public Schools are at a critical juncture and its leadership needs to make an important choice about which way the district intends to go. It could slide into further decline or it could take charge of its own future and make sure that it does not suffer the same fate as other urban public school systems across the country that are…

In 1993 the Minnesota Legislature provided funding to establish local collaborative initiatives to integrate services and improve outcomes for children and families. This report is based on the individual outcome reports mandated for the 24 collaboratives that first received implementation grants in 1995 or 1996. Information from a variety of…

During the 2001-02 school year, the Cargill Foundation and Minnesota Humanities Commission invited elementary schools and preschools in Minneapolis and its suburbs to apply for three-year grant funding to introduce the Core Knowledge curriculum in their schools. In the first year of implementation, the different contexts of the six participating…