Schmoker asserts that the kinds of skills students need to succeed in college--skills like clear thinking, effective writing, and the ability to analyze international and policy issues--are equally needed for non-college-bound youth. He maintains it is possible--and necessary--to provide an intellectually challenging and culturally enriching…

A focus on people--whether community members, students, historical figures, or fictional characters--and their motivations brings excitement to learning. A community's experts on everything from jazz music and Chinese tapestries to building construction can help students move inside history and other subjects. (MLH)

Advises educators on how to address the learning needs of Latino students. Includes understanding the issues, valuing Latino strengths, adopting culturally sensitive pedagogy, and examining society's unexamined norms. (Contains 21 references.)

Although "The Paideia Proposal" (1982) has been "all but totally eclipsed" by other recent publications on school reform, the Paideia Group's painstaking, unified, long-range approach (expanded on in its newly published second volume, "Paideia Problems and Possibilities," and the remaining volume, to be released later…

In a four-year, longitudinal study conducted between 2000 and 2004, the author followed 700 students as they progressed through three high schools: a diverse, urban school as well as two suburban schools. Although incoming freshmen at the urban school scored significantly lower in mathematics than incoming students at the two suburban schools, by…