This paper explores Puerto Rican high school students' experiences in the Chicago Public Schools (CPS). Data were collected via individual and group interviews with Puerto Rican students, focusing on the relationships, or lack thereof, among participants and their teachers and counselors and the relevance and/or interest, or lack thereof, of…

This report presents public high school graduation rates for all students and for African Americans, Latinos, and white sub-groups. Rates are reported for each state, for each of the 50 largest school districts, and for a few other districts of interest. The state and district numbers are also reported separately for African Americans, Latinos,…

Describes how a team of urban middle school educators developed a dual-language program to address the needs of their low-income, predominantly Puerto Rican students. Demonstrates how the structural, sociolinguistic, and ideological context influenced the way that this bilingual program functioned on the local level, challenging the dichotomous…

This cumulative report presents the synopses of the major articles, research notes, and publications from the Transfer and Retention of Urban Community College Students (TRUCCS) project. After a Letter from the Director and sections on the people and origins of TRUCCS, and a synopses, the report contains the following sections: (1) Transfer…

This chapter analyzes whether Hispanics and Hispanic immigrants in the City University of New York system have the same levels of access and achievement as other racial and ethnic populations. (Contains 3 tables.)

A diverse, Midwestern, high-poverty urban school district, under the guidance of a university reading professor with expertise in research-based instruction and reading intervention, began a professional-development initiative that resulted in improved reading achievement for its students. This article presents the background, rationale, and…

The "Partners in School Asthma Management" program for inner-city elementary school children comprises (1) case finding; (2) linkage of school nurses, parents, and clinicians; (3) a computer-based tailored educational program; and (4) school environmental assessment and intervention. Case finding identified 1730 children in 60 elementary schools…

This study investigated how many high-poverty and high-minority schools nationwide had high student performance, identifying 4,577 schools nationwide that had students with reading and/or math performance in the top third among all schools in the state at the same grade level, at least 50 percent low-income students, and at least 50 percent…

Legal segregation might be dead, but many metropolitan schools remain overwhelmingly black and poor--a result of years of white flight from central cities and recent court decisions accelerating a return to neighborhood schools. At the same time, the bourgeoning Hispanic population is finding itself in increasingly segregated schools across the…

This article looks at the way language subtly shapes and constrains the way we perceive reality. It examines one term-parental involvement. This apparently simple and democratic term serves as a portfolio of meanings that separate and divide. It illustrates two of these meanings, which take the form of a conjoined metaphor of "full/empty", or…

This is the second year report in a five-year evaluation of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP). This program, which began in 1990, provides government-funded vouchers for low-income children to attend private schools in the City of Milwaukee. The maximum voucher amount in 2007-08 was $6,607, and approximately 20,000 children use a…

A sample of 784 children with below-median literacy performance in kindergarten or at the beginning of grade 1 was assessed in 5 areas of psychological and social variables: academic competence, sociodemographic characteristics, social/emotional/behavioral characteristics, school context, and home environment. We examined the contribution of…

The authors investigated the effects of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation on reading achievement for urban middle school students. The authors initially developed a research-based theoretical model representing interrelationships among students' ethnicity, gender, grade level, intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, and reading achievement.…

State and federal accountability reforms are putting considerable pressure on schools to increase the achievement of historically low-performing groups of students and to close test score gaps. In this article, we exploit the differences among the large number of elementary schools in New York City to examine how much schools vary in the…

The Council of the Great City Schools has prepared this seventh edition of "Beating the Odds" to give the nation another look at how inner-city schools are performing on the academic goals and standards set by the states. This analysis examines student achievement in math and reading through spring 2006. It also measures achievement gaps…