Examined the perspectives of ethnic/racial minority, urban middle school girls, investigating how they constructed social identities of gender and race through their literacy experiences. Because the enacted curriculum lacked critical awareness of the sociocultural contexts of gender and race, students' perspectives were largely missing from…

This article reports the connections among urban students' school-business partnership experiences, developmental assets or strengths they report in their lives, and positive developmental outcomes. Surveys were completed by 429 9th-to 12th-grade Hispanic and African American students, mostly low income in an inner-city high school, and 76…

To comply with the district desegregation plan, the San Francisco Unified School District previously required higher scores for Chinese American applicants to its academic magnet high school than for more underrepresented groups. Examines the admissions debate, suggesting that exclusion of Asian and Latino concerns in district policymaking led to…

Concern about potential disruption by Latino gang members in East Los Angeles (California) high schools results in over-emphasis on classroom control and neglect of these students' academic and social development. This study recommends steps to encourage the integration and participation in schooling of gang members through individualized…

Examined the first year of cooperative planning between an elementary school and the local community for a full-service elementary school collaboration. Data from observations, surveys, and interviews provide feedback on perceptions of student achievement, barriers, parent participation, leadership and power, the planning process, and goals and…

The General Accounting Office (GAO) investigated the effects of educational reform on approximately 61,000 disadvantaged urban students (focusing on Black and Hispanic-American students) in 4 districts. Excerpts from GAO findings and implications of the mixed results, with overall modest gains, are provided. (SLD)