The author contends that a voucher system including private schools would allow greater access to quality education and broaden curricular options while reducing the costs of central school administration and ultimately of welfare and crime. (DM)

Provides background information to two opposing viewpoints, presented in other articles in this issue, on the relative merits and problems of exam schools and magnet schools. The articles were prompted by events in the Boston public school system's elite schools. (LHW)

Describes several successful programs for raising the achievement of disadvantaged students. Holds that since instructionally effective schools do exist, and they have known features which provide useful operational guidelines, it is possible to achieve further advances in successful pedagogy for poor children. (GC)

This collection surveys black education at a time when responsibility for minority education is shifting from the federal to the local level. It begins with an editors' preamble and two general commentaries, followed by a section headed "Perspective and Analysis," which includes the articles "Equity in Education: A Low Priority in the School…

Examines allegations of discrimination (against Jews), bias (against rural students), and corruption (favoring the rich and well-connected) in the admissions practices of Soviet universities. (CMG)

Reviews educational concerns in Sri Lanka, including the dropout rate, children who have never enrolled in schools, inequalities between urban and rural schools, the elitist nature of university education, and higher education's affirmative action area quota system for the ethnic majority. (CMG)

The creation of a separate and unequal system of education for blacks and whites in Chicago in the 1920s and 1930s, and black responses to the situation are described and analyzed in this book. Drawing upon material from black newspapers and journals, Chicago Board of Education documents, census data, private manuscript collections, and personal…

The experiences of three educationally strong, desegregated urban school systems are the subject of this report. The three school systems are Charlotte-Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Austin Independent School District, Texas, and the Seattle Public Schools, Washington. The report is divided into five chapters. Chapter 1 discusses the current…

This survey describes the range of computer technology that the Great City Schools are now using for administrative and instructional purposes. The report looks at how city school systems are now planning to install computers; how they are managing the planning, the purchasing, and evaluation of equipment; what equipment is actually being…

Considerable disagreement remains between white and black Americans as to what are permissible and effective policies for the desegregation of public education. Research findings exist to support almost every point of view, and desegregation strategies tend to reflect the social beliefs and educational assumptions of those in power. Efforts made…

As public schools are failing inner-city children, school choice offers a promising solution. This paper presents research that shows how school choice (public, private, or parochial) has a positive effect on minority, inner city children, noting that school choice is the only reform mechanism that would offer schools immediate and measurable…

Reviews effective schools research and asserts that achieving effectiveness by focusing narrowly on testing and curriculum objectives can have detrimental effects. Provides a listing of characteristics of schools that achieved grade-level success with low income students for several years. Intended as a practical guide for other schools wishing to…

Fifty-four inner city Catholic and other private elementary schools, whose student population is at least 70 percent minority, were studied to determine their educational impact, to describe pupils' family backgrounds, and to identify factors that influence academic achievement and school effectiveness. The study found that: (1) clientele of these…

Argues that the federal civil rights program contains flaws in preventing equal educational opportunity particularly for low-income victims of discrimination. Emphasizes the need for more government action, especially at the state level, to achieve equity goals. Analyzes current state educational policies. (SA)

Describes the Amigos Program at Maynard School, Cambridge, MA, a two-way bilingual education program. Success of the program and efforts at equal education result from teamwork between desegregation and bilingual education officers and the following elements: (1) site; (2) funding; (3) evaluation; (4) racial balance; and (5) parent support. (PS)