This report is an overview of recent research on the effects of class size on the academic performance and behavior of students at risk. In several ways it is not a conventional literature review. It emphasizes one recent large-scale investigation, Tennessee's Project STAR (Student-Teacher-Achievement-Ratio), begun in 1985. It is more evaluative…

The "Totally Cool, Totally Art Program" (TCTA) was initiated by the Austin (Texas) Parks and Recreation Department in the fall of 1996. Through the TCTA program, visual arts classes were offered to teens twice a week at each of nine recreation centers. At eight of the nine sites, six separate 4-week sessions were held, with three…

School staff can use information on risk factors to identify student needs and assess the ability of the school to address these needs. It is also important to identify protective factors that promote successful development or buffer risk factors that might otherwise compromise development. Three key factors that have been identified as fostering…

This paper suggests that space and spatiality are major features of racial identity and the formation of student resistance. It brings together critical studies of "Whiteness," human territoriality, and theories of resistance in education. The problems between white teachers and students of color can be understood better through a combination of…

Details a qualitative, descriptive study of three participants in the African American Achievers Youth Corps, Inc., a program matching at-risk African American middle school and high school males with adult mentors. These case studies indicate that caring and supportive behaviors of adults can improve the self-esteem and academic achievement of…

This book focuses on a range of instructional practices that promote children's understanding and build meaning into their academic learning experience. Actual practices uncovered in a 2-year investigation of 140 classrooms in a variety of high-poverty school settings are described and analyzed in a comprehensive demonstration of what…

The Emergency Immigrant Education Program of the Houston Independent School District (Texas) was intended to provide services to help immigrant children achieve a satisfactory level of academic performance. A total of 12,135 eligible immigrant students were identified in the Houston schools through October 1995, an increase of 149% above the…

The Cornerstone Project was developed to build a strong foundation for urban adolescent student learning through staff development and student leadership development. This report summarizes its implementation and objectives and considers the responses of students and teachers. The program was developed at the Martin Luther King Law and Public…

This study focused on Appalachian migrant children attending certain urban junior high schools in the Cincinnati, Ohio area. The primary source of data on the individual students was an interview combined with as much observation as possible during the interview. A profile of the urban Appalachian student was drawn from the data. Highlights…

The purpose of this study was to compare the self concept, academic achievement, and occupational aspirations of two samples of eleventh and twelfth grade black male students, who live in the inner city of a large metropolitan area and attend schools of racially different composition. The sample in the segregated black school consisted of 56 male…

The Ohio Department of Public Schools launched its Ohio Urban Schools Initiative as a commitment to systemic long-term change in the state's 24 urban districts. This report contains a framework that represents the initial phase of the Urban Schools Initiative, which developed into a collaborative effort among the school systems, state and local…

Reasons for the disproportionate failure rate of young urban African American males were studied in an ethnographic study of third- and sixth-grade classrooms in a low-income African American community. The multimethod approach involved observing classroom sessions and school activities, interviewing students and teachers, and examining…

This evaluation of the Detroit (Michigan) public schools was designed to restructure the ninth grade in ways that improve academic performance, develop positive attitudes toward learning, improve the school environment, reduce the dropout rate, and increase the graduation rate of students. Features of the program were instructional and direct…

This report seeks to answer the question whether improving the course-taking choices of urban school students can close the achievement gap between urban students and students nationally. It examines ACT Assessment scores for June 1997 high school graduates from school districts that are members of the Council of the Great City Schools. The…

The Community Liaison to Urban Education (CLUE) program operates from the Appalachia Educational Laboratory to research, develop, and implement a collaborative parent-community-school (PCS) education model designed to initiate and sustain the involvement of nonadvantaged parents, community leaders, and community organizations in the education of…