This study examined the postsecondary planning of African American and Hispanic high school seniors in five large urban school districts. Just prior to graduation in 2001, students from 23 high schools completed surveys and focus groups about their college planning. Students' educational expectations were high. Nearly all expected to earn at least…

Reports results of research on efforts by the Houston School District to raise students' reading and mathematics scores on the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills. Houston lowered the achievement gap between whites and Hispanics and African-Americans and made greater gains than the five other major urban school districts. (PKP)

This study examines tracking--the practice of grouping students into separate classes or courses based on their prior academic achievement--at the middle-school level, and the percentage of high-achieving students in tracked and untracked schools. It focuses on Massachusetts, a leader in "reforming" tracking, and the changes that have…

As of October 2007, 54 interdistrict magnet schools enrolling 18,928 students were operating in Connecticut. The bulk of these schools are located in the Hartford and New Haven areas--21 in the Hartford area and 17 in the New Haven area. Interdistrict magnets also serve significant numbers of students in the Waterbury region. In keeping with the…

The literature on school absences has focused predominantly on the reasons for student truancy, or it has assessed only aggregate student absences in their effect on achievement. However, this study brings forth a new issue: the relationship between types of absences--excused versus unexcused--and school performance. With a quantitative model of…

Being that educational disparities, manifested through socioeconomic instability, were a major contributing factor to the Los Angeles riots, it is important to examine how public high schools are now shaping the postsecondary opportunities of underrepresented students. Using opportunity-to-learn (OTL) and bounded rationality as frames, this…

Female minority students at an urban alternative high school completed interviews regarding perceptions of risk factors for female gang involvement. Peer pressure was the largest influence on female gang involvement. Respondents believed girls might turn to gangs for protection from neighborhood crime, abusive families, and other gangs. Lack of…

The implementation of zero tolerance policies raises important questions. In this article we explore how zero tolerance policies are interpreted, implemented, and enforced differently in urban, rural, and suburban districts, and how this results in unequal numbers of expulsions and suspensions. Using a policy analysis framework, we explored how…

This fact sheet highlights statistics related to the transition into high school for U.S. students. The statistics indicate a noticeable trend in the lack of progress of many students throughout freshman year. Many students are held back in ninth grade--creating what is known as the "ninth grade bulge"--and drop out by tenth grade--contributing to…

This research brief summarizes a survey about the effectiveness of programs from Break the Cycle, a nonprofit organization dedicated to developing and fielding dating-violence prevention programs. The study evaluated "Ending Violence," a three-class-session prevention program. Developed by a Los Angeles-based nonprofit group called Break…

This article articulates the results of an ongoing study in an urban school in New York City in which student and teacher researchers engage in practices that support the science success of the schools' predominantly Latino/a and African American population. By situating the study in the nature of corporate and communal practices, the article…

Examines three white teacher researchers' classroom inquiries on their limited English proficiency students. Teachers were investigating students' way of perceiving, learning, and using their native and second language in different circumstances. Teachers devised activities and curricula that responded meaningfully to students' strengths and…

In this article, the author explores the intersection between race/ethnicity and caring in the educational experiences of middle school Puerto Rican girls. Critical race theory and Latino/Latina critical theory are used as data analysis frameworks because of their emphasis on the roles of race/ethnicity and racism in shaping the circumstances of…

To examine how neighborhood characteristics influence academic achievement, data were drawn from a community survey of low-income neighborhoods and linked with data on performance on standardized testing for third-grade students attending elementary schools in those communities. Results of multilevel logistic regressions indicated that probability…

As student populations in K-12 schools in the United States continue to diversify and the teaching force remains largely White, cross-cultural teaching is an increasingly common phenomenon. In this article, a White teacher educator draws upon interviews with four teachers of color who work in Chicago public schools to examine ways White teachers…