This study compares average SAT 9 reading scores of second through fifth grade English-only children in schools using "Open Court" (a program for teaching young children to read) with the scores of comparable schools using non-scripted programs in one very large urban school district in California. Findings show that schools using…

Data from seven large urban areas are examined to determine the relationship between neighborhoods with a high incidence of poverty and social disorganization and low reading achievement. (ST)

Reports the findings of a matched-group study showing that the academic achievement of native Canadian elementary school children was not significantly different from that of their nonnative peers. (FL)

This article describes a discipline program for urban elementary school students. The program is based on several theories of moral development and it emphasizes the importance of the social context of the school environment. (Author/EB)

Describes the work and educational approach of Theresa Santiago, a special education teacher and winner of the State Farm Good Neighbor Award in Brooklyn, New York. Emphasis is on ecologically-themed lessons in math, science, and language arts and field trips to enrich the learning of her disadvantaged students with a variety of disabilities. (DB)

Supports Classroom Publishing (a bookmaking project) as a useful literacy tool which (1) encourages children to develop creative and expressive skills; (2) allows students to write for an audience outside the classroom; (3) makes the sometime tedious writing process more meaningful; and (4) produces a product to be admired by family, teachers and…

Offering suggestions on setting up and maintaining a cross-age reading program, this book describes teachers' experiences in establishing a cross-age reading program in a multiethnic, multilingual inner-city school in Oakland, California. The book notes that what began as an effort to engage one under-achieving fifth-grade boy evolved into an…

This study uses data from 171 teachers at eight inner-city elementary and middle schools in Baltimore to examine general patterns and connections between teacher attitudes about parent involvement, school programs, and the actual practices that teachers use. These patterns are examined at different academic levels, in different academic subjects,…

This document reports on an evaluation of the second year of the Cincinnati Public Schools' Lowest Achieving Schools, Temporarily (LAST) Program, which provides financial assistance to seven of the lowest academically ranked schools in the district. This program was one of the results of the Bronson desegregation suit and all of the schools in the…

This document describes changes in language arts instruction that are designed to recognize the unique strengths and abilities of Chapter 1 and migrant education students. The document also describes a particular vision of a new language arts program for these students, a program designed to teach to their strengths and provide them with…

Reading achievement tests have been used to identify deficiencies in inner city, poor readers; however, they often do not provide information about encoding strategies which lead some children to academic success. Immediate memory and visual analytic differences which contribute to the success of skilled readers are isolated in this study using 20…

The findings in this paper raise questions about the validity of educational assumptions underlying efforts to reform "bureaucratic dysfunctions" in the schools. Although specific reforms are not examined, there is a tenuous connection between bureaucratic organization of schools and the kinds of teacher attitudes toward clients so often cited as…

Sixty-three learning activities comprise this curriculum guide to conservation education designed for elementary students. The activities enable the teacher to relate the urban child's immediate environment to the ecological problems which confront our world. Four conceptual schemes are used for each of the four grades, K-3: Living things (plants,…

This annotated bibliography of school-community relations literature includes 79 citations subdivided into the following four categories: (1) General discussions of school-community relations, (2) school politics and community power structure, (3) schools and public relations, and (4) schools and urban problems. Citations of journal articles,…

Individual Conferences to Promote Independent Reading is one of four classroom activities in the system of Individually Guided Motivation. A package of teacher-education materials designed to allow schools to implement the program of individual conferences was evaluted in six different school settings. Objectives were identified for both the…