The educational community is divided over which is the best approach for improving urban schools: focus on teaching and learning or underlying social inequity? This article argues that the students who attend urban schools can inform the debate. The study draws on interviews with fourteen urban youth about their participation in a community-based…

Discussions about the ways of improving high schools have frequently considered school size and many "new" schools reduce the size to personalize the school experience and produce more positive student outcomes. Interest in designing new small schools has increased. Embedded in many of the small school design initiatives is the belief that new…

For a variety of reasons described in the paper, improving the performance of urban school districts is more difficult today than it was several decades ago. Yet economic and social changes make performance improvement especially important today. Two quite different bodies of research provide ideas for improving the performance of urban school…

Winners and finalists for the annual Broad Prize for Urban Education have consistently outperformed peer districts serving similar student populations. What makes the difference? These districts consistently demonstrate a learning loop that influences the district's ability to learn, which ultimately influences student opportunities to learn.…

In the world of corporate philanthropy, there are those who give to educational causes, and this article describes one such philanthropist, Eli Broad, who shares his take on schools in America. Broad is in a category unto himself not only because of the amount of money he has given--more than $280 million since 1999--but also for his unique…

Since the 1970s, both authors have been involved in the school reform movement, sharing a passion for improving public education, particularly urban public education. Their experiences as teacher and professor in an urban magnet laboratory school reinforced their belief in the ability of all children to learn. They state that, within the magnet…

Professional development schools (PDSs) were developed to provide a new model for teacher education that enables graduate students to have meaningful classroom experiences while they earn their degrees. This digest describes some of the ways that PDSs can improve the school experiences of urban students. It also describes some of the pitfalls of…

One of the designers of the "Controlled Choice" student-assignment plan of the Boston (Massachusetts) public schools presents his evaluation of options suggested to replace the plan. The three options under consideration do not accomplish the main goal of any student-assignment plan, that is, to improve education. (SLD)

The Florida State Legislature and the Department of Education have generally addressed the 1997 recommendations of the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability (OPPAGA) for improving student performance in high-poverty schools. Recent legislation and department actions have established a stronger foundation for ensuring that…

The largest single federal investment in schooling, Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (P.L. 103-382) has provided supplementary resources to schools with large numbers of low-income students throughout the past three decades. In 1994 the program was reauthorized according to the Improving America's Schools Act (IASA), which…

This report describes a framework for exploring the processes of resilience in students at Stanton Elementary School, an urban public school in Washington, D.C. Investigators for the Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed at Risk invited Stanton to participate in a study of exposure to stress, including violence, and its…

This book explores parental participation in the public schools as an opportunity for personal growth and empowerment and as a source of support for educational goals and needed resources. The first chapter explores developmental, psychological, and sociological theories that deal with human potential and how this is related to participation,…

This paper highlights three models for implementing local restructuring of schools: James Comer's School Development Program; Robert Slavin's Success for All; and Henry Levin's Accelerated Schools. These models have been among the more popular models for restructuring schools in poor, predominantly minority neighborhoods with traditionally…

This document provides a compilation of information presented at the "Cause for Applause" conference sponsored by the Urban Education Network of the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (NCREL) and the Chicago (Illinois) public schools. The first section, "Strategies for Urban School Improvement," describes programs…

The San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) Summit that focused on the education and academic achievement of African American students was unique because the school district and the African American community came together as partners to seek ways to improve the educational status of African American students. This report tells the story of…