This feasibility study sought (a) to determine how the University of Chicago, The Woodlawn Organization, and the Chicago Public Schools could collaborate to improve inner-city public education, and (b) to develop an operational plan for such collaboration. Necessary collaborative dialogue was developed and maintained through the creation and…

Discusses the theme of the special issue, "Excellence and Equity in Education: Models for Success." Emphasizes the need for concern with both educational quality and its prerequisite, equal educational opportunity, and that strategies exist to improve the quality of instruction for minority students. (FMW)

This paper examines interrelationships between curriculum and instruction in an urban teacher education program and state educational policies promoting school reform. It notes how national policy talk and organizational strategies promoting systemic reform in schools serving low-income students influence the work of teacher educators preparing…

Provides a legislative view of the development of the Wisconsin Parental Choice Plan mandated for the city of Milwaukee, placing this initiative in the context of the educational needs of African American children. Argues that legislators must target the complex needs of poor and ethnic minority students in urban schools. (AF)

Discusses the impact of accountability on educational quality at the state level, exploring various Texas student performance measures over the past decade that show improvements in school performance for minority and impoverished children. Discusses data from Texas Assessment of Academic Skills scores, National Assessment of Educational Progress…

The series "Self-instructional Notes on Social Participation" is a six volume series intended as teaching aids for adult educators. The theoretical, methodological, informative and practical elements of this series will assist professionals in their work and help them achieve greater success. The specific purpose of each notebook is…

This paper presents a set of general observations about state-sponsored school improvement initiatives with data from several sources. One major source is the Research for Better Schools, Inc., Philadelphia (Pennsylvania), implementation study, "Facing the Challenge: Selected Programs and Practices of the Urban Initiative's Operation School…

New Jersey's Public School Education Act of 1975 requires local school districts to provide students with "thorough and efficient" educational opportunity. This report describes State initiatives carried out as of April 1986 to help urban districts comply with the act's mandate in the face of the particularly complex and concentrated…

This report describes New Jersey's continuing efforts to help urban school districts comply with the state's Public School Education Act of 1975 in view of the particularly complex problems which the urban districts face in complying with the act's mandate requiring all districts to provide their students with a "thorough and efficient"…

This paper provides summaries of 31 speeches presented at the conference. The theme of this conference was what is new, what is working, and what is happening within the North Central Region and across the country to aid the success of at-risk students. Speeches described specific programs that have been effective. Others covered relevant…

This paper presents the educational implications of an empirical study aimed at establishing current attendance rates, identifying the factors that influence attendance, and understanding how important these factors are for different groups in the Malaysian population through simulations and projections. Part 1 introduces the design and…

The administration of Rochester Community Schools (Michigan) initiated a process for long-range strategic planning in 1984, described in this synopsis. Strategic planning is an ongoing, evolutionary process of defining the business one is in or should be in; establishing organizational goals and objectives; and developing and implementing…

Despite the rapid growth and popularity of the magnet school movement, little systematic research has been conducted on questions of vital importance in assessing the movement's impact on the quality of educational opportunities in big-city school districts. There are certain issues that are important and deserve immediate attention from educators…

To project the future of schools in the 1990s, current societal trends are discussed--from the Swedish perspective--that have resulted in dramatic problems of large urban schools. School institutional changes are needed to meet societal changes. The inherent conservatism of the school can result in a mismatch with society. (SLD)

This book analyzes the work of Paulo Freire and discusses Freire's work with adult literacy education and educational improvement. The book is divided into eight major sections, each containing one or more chapters or sections discussing Freire's works, as follows: Section 1, "Pedagogy of the Oppressed," includes "The Fear of…