Finds recent brain research sheds light on roles played by a positive affective environment and the interactive use of language in teaching the learning process through content area classes. Implements these ideas over a 10-month period in a ninth-grade classroom. Compares program students to other ninth graders on measures of metacognitive…

Describes an alternative tutoring program, where meaningful teaching and learning emerges within an urban community, and its evaluation process. Notes that preservice teachers learn to understand the social context within which literacy can occur. Reveals the impact of this experience on preservice teachers' teaching and learning, as well young…

Defines, illustrates, and evaluates three approaches to home-school collaboration: School to Home Transmission, Interactive Learning; and Partnership for School Success. Discusses pitfalls to avoid. (DM)

The elementary version of the Systematic Screening for Behavior Disorders measure was modified for use with an urban preschool Head Start population (n=90). A preschool adaptation of this measure could allow significantly earlier identification of children with potential severe behavior disorders. Approximately 5% of the children were identified…

Project SHAPE is a two-year intervention and enrichment program for underachieving and educationally disadvantaged ninth and tenth grade students in Toledo, Ohio. Operating through teacher empowerment; curriculum development; structural organization; and student, parent, and community involvement, SHAPE's goals are developing an academically…

Government programs and initiatives have inadequately addressed education's importance in juvenile detention facilities. Detained juveniles are not "throw-aways." Congress has inadvertently recognized this population through the Urban Education Program; such minors are "at-risk" but not hopeless. Adoption of program guidelines at juvenile…

Problem-based learning was used as an enrichment activity in 2% of an urban middle school's curriculum. Assessment showed that it improved behavior and science achievement of low-income minority students. (SK)

An important challenge in urban science education is finding ways to engage all students in the learning of science. However, research in this area has consistently shown that around middle school student engagement in science wanes. Using critical ethnographic methods this study reveals how students cultivate a sense of ownership in an informal…

In 2005, there was a transition in China, in which public policy toward education underwent a systemwide change. In this article, the author explores the educational development in China and examines reforms concerning educational issues that were of intense concern to society. In recent years, Chinese education at all levels has undergone massive…

For more than a century, a succession of New York City (NYC) mayors have claimed that they were reducing administrative overhead in the school system and driving more resources to instruction. These claims have been dutifully reported by the press with rarely any effort to verify them. For the last 50 years, the salaries of teachers were increased…

This article suggests some reasons why an urban education project in Australia might inform current debates surrounding teacher education. The first section provides a brief overview of the Australian education system from 1950--1980 as a way of introducing the larger historical context in which teacher education is situated. The second part…

The 1991-1992 Cooperative Emergency Substance Abuse Prevention Program was the first year of a two-year program in Community School District 3 in New York City. The overall objectives of the program were to provide staff training in the knowledge and skills necessary to carry out substance abuse prevention education, to make available to students…

The focus of this report is the way standards are influencing instruction in Philadelphia classrooms and how the various parts of the system are working together to support standards-driven instruction at the classroom level. The 1996-97 school year was still an early one in the implementation of standards-based instruction in Philadelphia. The…

This report describes how staff at the school, cluster, and central offices have responded to the Philadelphia district's new student support ethos. This report does not present student outcome data or measure the quantity or quality of services because the evaluation teams believed it was too early in the implementation of the initiative to…

This report summarizes the response of a monitoring commission to the 1983-84 evaluation of the implementation of the Student Assignment Plan (SAP), that is part of a court-mandated school desegregation plan in Chicago (Illinois). Under the SAP, the Board of Education was required to ensure that all schools have at least 30 percent minority…