This qualitative phenomenological study explored how 19 school leaders in seven California comprehensive high schools were making sense of data and using data to transform their schools by closing achievement gap for historically underrepresented students. Data is a powerful tool in the hands of school leaders to transform patterns of inequality…

Using data from a multi-year study of eleven low-performing high schools, Cooper and Davis examine the academic aspirations and motivations of urban African American high school students in California. Situating their discussion within the context of neoliberalism and its manifestation in urban school reform and community cohesion, the authors…

This article examines the experiences of 20 students of color who voluntarily attend a racially integrated school. The study draws from the Socio-Cultural dimension of schooling as a framework to understand how the students of color fared on a social, cultural, and environmental level within a predominantly White school. Through a questionnaire,…

Surveyed 1,090 high school students involved in a detracking effort in an urban school at which heterogeneous core classes in English and history were implemented. Data suggest that the core program promoted greater academic success for more students while maintaining rigorous academic standards and a culturally sensitive curriculum. (SLD)

Examines the response of a large racially mixed urban California school community to the tension between excellence and equity in public education and describes how 319 African American students experienced school reform, including detracking. Findings indicate the potential of detracking for real educational improvement. (SLD)

The response of one urban school community to the tension between excellence and equity in public education was to change the structure, curriculum, and educational practices of its ninth-grade English and history courses fundamentally. This report brings together qualitative and quantitative data to document the efforts of a large urban high…

Examines one community's efforts to fundamentally alter a high school's structure, curriculum, and instructional practices to provide greater educational opportunities for all students. The program used heterogeneous grouping in tandem with curricular and pedagogical changes. Student surveys indicated that the program was moderately successful in…