This document outlines practical considerations involved in planning schoolwide projects funded under Title I Chapter 1 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, 1975. A schoolwide project is a project conducted by a school district to upgrade the entire educational program of a school that has an enrollment of at least 75 percent low-income…

This manuscript discusses strategies, designs, and techniques used by staff consultants of the Documentation and Technical Assistance project in order to facilitate problem solving capacities in urban schools. Intervention techniques described were geared to a model of the ideal school organization, conceived of as one which features self renewal…

This report describes the New York City School Improvement Project, a program designed to help participating schools to improve their instructional effectiveness through school based planning groups that represent the schools' constituencies. The project design and procedures for determining the needs of individual schools are discussed, as are…

This paper focuses on the distinctive characteristics of urban environments, the ways these environmental features affect city children, and the roles that schools can play in modifying these effects. Bronfenbrenner's multilevel framework for studying the ecology of human development is described. Recognizing the central role that families play in…

Discusses the use of standardized achievement scores to measure the quality of practice-oriented school improvement activities in school districts. Focuses on four areas of concern: the multiple functions of schooling; documentation and data collection; real world complexities; and ethics. Recommends that cautions be taken against exclusive…

Describes new curriculum developments, supervisory strategies, and management techniques that were found to have improved educational outcomes in 16 urban school systems. (GC)

Poor students and parents in the East Harlem schools of New York City's Community District 4 should have the same opportunity to obtain the benefits of school choice available to the wealthy, who can afford private and parochial schools. Parental choice can provide the catalyst for educational reform by introducing a market mechanism to the public…

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 booklet presents summaries of the proceedings of five workshops held at the U.S. Department of Education that discussed strategies for improving urban schools. The first section contains materials from a workshop on the New Haven School Intervention Project, an elementary school effort designed to aid black and disadvantaged children. In the…

Analyzes teacher beliefs concerning academically at risk students in inner urban schools. Categorizes teacher beliefs on the following two dimensions: (1) whether teachers believe some type of instructional assistance could improve achievement or whether they ignore low performance; and (2) whether teachers assume the responsibility for improving…

Considers the factors which lead to better educational opportunities for urban students in Kenya than for rural students. They include better equipment, well-trained teachers, the use of English as the language of instruction, lower fees, and the earlier introduction of curricular innovations and changes. (CMG)

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…

Magnet schools are designed to increase students' chances of obtaining the type of education they desire, but little is known about the actual relationship between the magnet school experience and its benefit to students once they leave it, and more research is needed. While a considerable amount has been written about the effects that magnet…

This paper examines the complex relationship between black adolescents' ethnic identity, school performance, and the effect of the larger social structure on the interaction of these phenomena by reference to the concept of racelessness. This concept captures the endemic tensions and conflicts experienced by black Americans as they seek to define…

Black adolescents have learned a well-defined fear of "acting white": a fear of excelling in academic arenas which traditionally have been defined as the prerogative of white Americans. The focus of this analysis is the resulting conflict experienced by academically successful and unsuccessful black students in one predominantly black high school…