This paper suggests specific changes in Chapter 1 legislation (up for reauthorization in the fall of 1993) to make it more responsive not only to schools and students, but also to current school restructuring initiatives and new understandings of teaching, learning, and assessment. Recommendations are made in the areas of greater equity in access…

This paper evaluates the effectiveness of the Beating the Odds (BTO) program of the Houston (Texas) schools in the 1990-91 school year, the third and final year of Phase I of the program. The BTO program provided training workshops for teachers of at-risk students and direct counseling and social service support for at-risk students in a selected…

The Thinking Skills Program of the Saginaw Public Schools was evaluated in a process evaluation. The School District of the City of Saginaw (Michigan) operates a supplemental educational delivery system in reading and mathematics that consists of Chapter-1 funded elementary and secondary compensatory education (CE). Elementary CE is both a push-in…

It is generally agreed that students (especially those from minority and disadvantaged backgrounds) are better educated in Catholic high schools than in public high schools. This book examines a broad range of Catholic high schools to determine if this difference is so, the reasons why, and whether this type of success can be transferred to the…

This book reports on the Penn Study of Teenage Pregnancy, which examined issues surrounding adolescent pregnancy, abortion, and childbearing. Participants were African-American teenagers between the ages of 13 and 17 from disadvantaged urban backgrounds. Based on individual interviews over 2 years in the early 1980s, the study provided details…

This is the first interim report of the congressionally mandated National Study of Student Support Services (SSS), a federally funded grant program designed to help economically disadvantaged students achieve success at the postsecondary level. The program is intended to facilitate disadvantaged students' high school completion, entry into and…

In 1984 the California Legislature enacted Assembly Concurrent Resolution 83 (ACR 83), which established specific goals for enhancing the participation and success in postsecondary education of students from economic, racial, and ethnic backgrounds historically underrepresented in higher education. The Postsecondary Education Commission was…

This report provides an evaluation, for the school year 1982-83, of the Resident Environmental Classroom project for Chapter I classroom teachers and students in the Cleveland Public Schools. The project is designed to provide students with direct experience with the natural environment, exposure to experiential learning concepts, exposure to a…

As part of a nine-volume, six-state study of the impact of school finance reforms on minorities and the poor, the author examines the history and effects of finance reform in Texas. He presents a political and socioeconomic profile of the state and discusses past Texas school financing, the role of the Rodriguez v. San Antonio Independent School…

This study is one of the "knowledge development" activities mounted in conjunction with research, evaluation, and development activities funded under the Youth Employment and Demonstration Projects Act of 1977 (YEDPA). It focuses on the impacts of Job Corps participation on a large group of participants after 18 months to two years.…

Cargill Scholars is a comprehensive, five-year program that aims to improve students' scholastic performance by raising academic expectations, preventing high-risk behavior, and improving life skills. The program serves 50 socio-economically-disadvantaged children who attend school in Minneapolis or its northern and western suburbs. The program…

This report presents 10 suggestions for what the U.S. Department of Education can do to help schools raise achievement for all students and close the achievement gap by increasing teacher quality: (1) make improving teacher quality job one; (2) insist on good data; (3) ensure that states make an immediate priority of fixing the indefensible…

A study assessed the impact of the Shepherd School program, a nonformal basic education program in rural northern Ghana implemented by a nongovernmental organization. Data were gathered through observation; document analysis; and interviews with 42 children, parents, community members, chiefs, school staff, NGO members, and assemblymen in 2…

School-based media provide information, help organize information and ideas, help create values and attitudes, help shape expectations, and provide models for action. Schools should continuously involve students in analyzing media message systems and help students develop critical thinking (including media literacy). (RLC)

Even Start is a national program of early childhood and adult education to improve family literacy. This document is a series of four appendices which accompany the National Evaluation of the Even Start Family Literacy Program, a 4-year effort to assess projects, participants, and effects of Even Start. Appendix A provides in-depth description of…